Newark drug dealer arrested in gang sweep gets 15 years

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on October 23, 2008 at 6:16 PM, updated October 23, 2008 at 6:23 PM

A Newark drug dealer arrested last year in a sweep of reputed Bloods members and their associates became the latest of the group to be sentenced on federal charges today.

Quazine Robinson, 30, was given a prison term of more than 15 years after pleading guilty to selling close to 50 grams of crack cocaine in November 2006. As part of the plea, he also acknowledged selling a smaller amount of heroin.

"He has relied on drugs to support himself even though he's had other gainful employment," U.S. District Judge Jose Linares said of Robinson before imposing sentence in Newark.

The judge said Robinson began selling drugs when he was 17 and had been arrested a half-dozen times, mostly distribution charges, over the years. The sentence he got today was 188 months.

The question of whether Robinson had any Bloods affiliation came up several times during the hearing. Robinson's lawyer, Anna Cominsky, insisted he had no gang connection, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald D. Wigler said the question did not lend itself to a cut-and-dried answer.

Wigler said the government had no witnesses to confirm Robinson as a Bloods member or associate. But he also said Robinson had ties to other defendants who were Bloods and that some of the time Robinson spent in prison on other convictions were in wings reserved for street gang members.

But, while noting Robinson had declared on a prison form he did have a gang affiliation, Linares said he would not consider any such link for sentencing purposes. Robinson made no mention of any Bloods association when he rose to tell the judge he'd gotten caught up in a way of life that had done him harm.

He gave his mother credit for doing all she could to raise him and his brother correctly, took responsibility for his crime and promised things will someday be different.

"I can change and I will change," Robinson vowed.

Cominsky described her client as "sort of a neutral person" who was allowed to sell his drugs by gang members because he didn't cause anyone problems.

She said Robinson enjoys a strong support system waiting for him when he's eventually released from prison and would have benefited had his earlier cases been in federal court where he was dealt with more severely than he was in state court.

"That's a number Mr. Robinson never thought he'd see in his lifetime," Cominsky said of a potential prison term of between 188 and 235 months that her client was facing today. "You can commit a murder in Essex County and not get that amount of time."

While she conceded illegal drug sales do the community no good, Cominsky also said Robinson's transactions involved no weapons and resulted in no injuries to anyone. But Wigler saw things differently, though he also thought a prison term at the low end of the sentencing range was appropriate.

"This case was not an isolated mistake on his part," the prosecutor said of Robinson. "It was a way of life for him."

Wigler also said Robinson was a "significant player" in the investigation of the 9 Tre Gangster set of the Bloods that led to his arrest along with 19 others in June 2007.

They were the first arrests by a task force composed of federal and Essex County law enforcement agencies formed to crack down on gang activity.

Fifteen of the 20 defendants had their cases assigned to federal court, while five went to Superior Court in Newark, Wigler said.

All of the 15 federal cases have resulted in guilty pleas, with Robinson the ninth defendant to be sentenced. Prison terms have ranged to a high of 188 months, said Jake Elberg, the other federal prosecutor handling the case.

"This prosecution has taken a significant bite out of gang activity here in Newark," Wigler said after today's sentencing. "However, the gang problem in the city and state is growing and there's a lot of work still needing to be done."