Hodge, Pierce Get Decades for Cocaine Stash House Heist Plot

CAMDEN, N.J. — A pair of Camden men plotted to storm a drug stash house with military-grade precision, intending to execute the occupants and walk out with multiple kilograms of cocaine. Cordero Hodge, 25, and Jameel Pierce, 25, were sentenced today to 160 and 140 months in federal prison, respectively, after admitting their roles in a violent conspiracy that never reached its deadly conclusion — thanks to the ATF.

The plan, hatched in October 2013, wasn’t just about robbery — it was about annihilation. Wiretaps captured Pierce vowing to ‘off them,’ referring to the dealers they believed would be guarding the stash. Hodge, meanwhile, coldly discussed silencing his .40 caliber handgun, admitting a potato wouldn’t cut it. The chilling recordings laid bare a scheme soaked in blood before it ever spilled a drop.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) moved fast. On October 18, 2013, agents arrested Hodge and Pierce in Maple Shade, New Jersey, as they arrived at a meet-up point primed for violence. From Pierce, they seized a sawed-off shotgun. From Hodge, the .40 caliber firearm he’d been so concerned about silencing.

That recovered firearm became a key piece in another murder case. Ballistics analysis tied Hodge’s weapon to the August 25, 2013, execution-style killing of Surinder Singh, a gas station attendant at Garden State Fuel in Woodbury. Singh was shot dead during a robbery, and now the same gun linked to Hodge’s stash house plot tied him to cold-blooded murder.

Both men pleaded guilty in May 2016 to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle handed down the sentences in Camden federal court, adding five years of supervised release for each.

U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman credited the ATF Camden Field Office, DEA Maple Shade, Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office, Cherry Hill Police, and Maple Shade Police for dismantling the plot. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin C. Danilewitz prosecuted. Hodge was represented by Teri S. Lodge, Esq.; Pierce by John F. Renner, Esq.