Mercer County Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Heroin Trafficking, Unlawful Possession of Firearms, and Possession of Firearm in Furtherance of Heroin Trafficking
TRENTON, N.J. – A Mercer County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 300 months in prison for heroin trafficking and firearms charges, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Timothy Wimbush, aka “Young Money,” 33, was convicted in October 2021 of conspiracy to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin, distribution of heroin, possession of a firearm in furtherance of his heroin distribution, and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition by a convicted felon following a three-week trial before former Chief U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson. Following Judge Wolfson’s retirement, the case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner, who imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.
According to documents filed in the case and the evidence at trial:
In 2018, defendant Wimbush and others participated in a large drug trafficking conspiracy that operated in various areas of Trenton, which sought to profit from the distribution of heroin.
On Sept. 6, 2018, law enforcement officers stopped Wimbush’s green 2002 Volkswagen Passat after observing Wimbush’s co-defendant, Taquan Williams, a previously convicted felon, enter the vehicle carrying a yellow plastic bag believed to contain contraband. The Passat was driven by and registered to Wimbush, who also was a previously convicted felon. During a subsequent search of Wimbush’s vehicle, law enforcement recovered from a secret trap compartment installed under the rear passenger’s seat 57 bricks of heroin, four semiautomatic firearms – including a .223 caliber assault rifle linked to a shooting in Trenton four days earlier – hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and the yellow plastic bag that Williams had carried into the vehicle moments earlier. Law enforcement discovered in the yellow bag two boxes of .45 caliber ammunition and three .45 caliber firearm magazines, which matched one of the semiautomatic firearms also found in the trap compartment. One of the firearms concealed in Wimbush’s secret trap compartment was used in connection with a violent and reckless shooting in the City of Trenton. On Sept. 2, 2018, four of Wimbush’s associates, including one of his co-defendants, one of his relatives, and one of co-defendant Williams’s relatives, were shot in a drive-by shooting in the area of Stuyvesant and Bryn Mawr Avenues in Trenton. Evidence also showed that a likely retaliatory shooting in the area of Lee and West State Street occurred shortly thereafter the same day. Ballistics analysis of a shell casing recovered from the site of the Lee and West State Street shooting conclusively linked the .223 caliber assault rifle Wimbush possessed in the trap compartment of his vehicle on September 6 with the Lee and West State Street shooting on September 2. Telephone communications intercepted during the court-authorized wiretap between Wimbush’s conspirators linked Wimbush and his associates to back-and-forth shootings on and after September 2 and to heroin trafficking activity in the City of Trenton.
Law enforcement identified the heroin in the trap compartment of Wimbush’s vehicle as having been supplied by Wimbush’s conspirators, including Jakir Taylor and Tacques Hall. Taylor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and firearms charges and was sentenced by Judge Wolfson earlier this year. Hall pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and was sentenced by Judge Wolfson in 2019. Wimbush’s codefendant Taquan Williams was convicted at trial of possessing firearms or ammunition as a convicted felon and was sentenced by Judge Wolfson in 2022.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, Newark Division, Trenton Resident Agency, under the direction of under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Denney in Newark; special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Newark Division, Trenton Satellite Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Bryan Miller; officers of the Trenton Police Department, under the direction of Police Director Steve Wilson; officers of the Princeton Police Department, under the direction of Chief Jonathan Bucchere; officers of the Ewing Police Department, under the direction of Chief Albert Rhodes; officers of the Burlington Township Police Department, under the direction of chief John Fine; and detectives of the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing. He also thanked officers of the New Jersey State Police, under the direction of Superintendent Col. Patrick J. Callahan; detectives of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Angelo Onofri; officers of the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office, under the direction of Sheriff John A. Kemler; and members of the New Jersey State Board of Parole for their assistance in the investigation and prosecution of the case.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Ramey of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Trenton.
This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
