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Atlantic City Couple Admits to Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced yesterday that an Atlantic City couple has pleaded guilty to their respective roles in drug trafficking and money laundering in the Atlantic County area.
Toye Tutis, 44, and his long-time paramour, Jazmin Vega, 42, pleaded guilty in Camden federal court to conspiracy to launder Tutis’s drug trafficking proceeds. Tutis also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Tutis operated a large-scale drug trafficking ring out of the Ta’Ja Laundromat in Atlantic City, purchasing and distributing between 150 to 450 kilograms of cocaine and approximately 26 kilograms of heroin, and laundering between $1.5 and $3 million in drug proceeds.
Vega admitted to laundering Tutis’s drug trafficking proceeds in several ways, including through the couple’s various businesses – Ta’Ja Construction I LLC; Ta’Ja Real Estate Investors LLC; and Integrity Heating and Cooling LLC; and by purchasing more than 30 properties with tainted funds.
As part of their plea agreements, Vega and Tutis have to forfeit 20 properties, cash and other assets. Tutis faces a maximum potential penalty of life in prison and a fine of $10 million. The money laundering count to which Tutis and Vega both pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
The investigation leading to today’s guilty pleas was credited to special agents of the FBI’s Newark Division, Atlantic City Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Timothy Gallagher; the DEA’s New Jersey Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Carl J. Kotowski; the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Diane Ruberton; and the Atlantic City Police Department, under the direction of Police Chief Henry White.
Sentencing for Tutis is scheduled for February 17, 2017. Nine other people have pleaded guilty to participating in the drug trafficking conspiracy or other related drug trafficking in the Atlantic County area, including Kabaka Atiba, Tozine Tiller, TeJohn Cooper, Ronald Douglas Byrd, Kareem Taylor, Talib Tiller, John Wellman, Phillip Horton, and Francisco Alberto Rascon-Muracami.
Key Facts
- State: New Jersey
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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