Dozens of alleged gang members are now off the street after a major drug bust involving heroin and crack-cocaine in Newark.
This was a monthslong investigation involving the Grape Street sect of the Crips. Several of the alleged gang members appeared in court Wednesday.
Criminal complaints say accused gang member Corey "C-Murder" Batts, who's already locked up in Hudson County, tried to use evidence collected as part of his legal defense to murder a federal agent.
The group also allegedly used social media to "talk up" its street presence and intimidate potential witnesses.
In one case, an alleged gang member bragged, in a conversation caught on wiretap, about filling a courtroom with "goons" to force a witness on the stand to keep quiet.
Charges have been filed for at least 70 alleged gang members. Fifty of them have already been arrested. Warrants are out for 19 others who are still at large.