Atlantic City Couple Copped to Drug Empire, Money Laundering

Atlantic City’s streets fed a multi-year narcotics firestorm fueled by Toye Tutis, 44, and his longtime partner Jazmin Vega, 42 — now both convicted felons who admitted their roles in a sprawling drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy that poisoned Atlantic County for nearly half a decade.

Tutis pleaded guilty in Camden federal court to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, crack cocaine, and heroin — a charge carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine. He also admitted to conspiring with Vega to launder between $1.5 million and $3 million in drug profits, earned through a narcotics empire run out of the Ta’Ja Laundromat. Vega, in lockstep, pleaded guilty to the money laundering conspiracy, sealing her fate alongside Tutis.

Between 2010 and December 2014, Tutis orchestrated the purchase and distribution of 150 to 450 kilograms of cocaine and approximately 26 kilograms of heroin. The profits weren’t stashed in mattresses — they were pumped through a web of shell businesses: Ta’Ja Construction I LLC, Ta’Ja Real Estate Investors LLC, and Integrity Heating and Cooling LLC. More than 30 properties were bought with blood money, investigators say, a real estate façade masking a criminal enterprise.

As part of their plea agreements, both Tutis and Vega must forfeit 20 properties, cash, and other assets tied to the operation. The money laundering count they both admitted to carries up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Sentencing is set for Feb. 17, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle.

They aren’t the only ones falling. Nine others have already pleaded guilty in connection with the Atlantic County drug network. Kabaka Atiba, 46; Tozine Tiller, 42; TeJohn Cooper, 43; Ronald Douglas Byrd, 51; Kareem Taylor, 41; Talib Tiller, 43; John Wellman, 41; Phillip Horton, 50; and Francisco Alberto Rascon-Muracami, 22, who was sentenced to 70 months and five years supervised release on Oct. 30, 2015.

The takedown was a joint hammer-swing by federal and local forces: FBI Newark Division (Atlantic City Resident Agency), DEA New Jersey Division, Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, Atlantic City Police Department, N.J. State Police, Pennsylvania State Police, Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office, ATF, ICE-HSI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, and police departments in Ventnor, Northfield, and Millville. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Diana Carrig, Howard Wiener, and Jonathan M. Peck. Tutis was represented by J. Michael Farrell, Esq., of Philadelphia; Vega by Troy A. Archie, Esq., of Cinnaminson, New Jersey.