A West New York drug dealer was sentenced to 20 years in state prison on Friday for growing large crops of high-grade marijuana in two buildings in Newark, Acting Attorney General John Jay Hoffman announced.Â
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
David Companioni, 32, of West New York, was sentenced to 20 years in state prison, including six years and eight months of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Siobhan A. Teare in Essex County.
Companioni was tried in front of an Essex County jury in August and convicted on Aug. 20 of charges of first-degree maintaining or operating a controlled dangerous substance production facility and second-degree possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, court documents show.
A co-defendant, Aday Y. Fernandez, 34, also of West New York, pleaded guilty on April 10, 2015 to charges of conspiracy and maintaining or operating a controlled dangerous substance production facility, authorities said.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13. The state will recommend that he be sentenced to seven years in state prison.
The charges were the result of an investigation by the New Jersey State Police Drug Trafficking North Unit.
In January 2012, the New Jersey State Police, with assistance from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), developed information that Fernandez and others were involved in the cultivation of high-grade marijuana, officials said.
The State Police commenced an investigation, and Companioni was identified as a co-conspirator through surveillance.
Companioni and Fernandez were seen purchasing numerous items from a Home Depot store that could be used to construct an irrigation system for growing high-grade marijuana, including PVC piping, rolls of black poly pipe and PVC fittings.
They were seen taking those items into a warehouse on Miller Street in Newark. Companioni and Fernandez were observed making frequent visits to the warehouse and a multi-family residential home on Summer Avenue in Newark, officials said.
Companioni and Fernandez were arrested on Feb. 23, 2012. Members of the NJ State Police executed search warrants at the warehouse on Miller Street and the multi-family home on Summer Avenue, where investigators discovered more than 100 marijuana plants in total, authorities said.
The State Police also executed a search warrant at Fernandez’s home near the 300th block of 54th Street in West New York, where they seized several pounds of marijuana and more than $42,000 in U.S. currency, police said.
The sentencing is pretty harsh I think for just growing some weed. I believe this guy is a contractor used by the town of west new york
Don’t do the crime if you can’t served time
This guy grows a plant with numerous health benefits and gets 20 yrs, while the corrections officer who helped 2 convicted killers escape jail gets 7 yrs and will serve no more than 2. Fuck the US justice system!
FINALLY…the world is safe again. Now we just gotta go to work to feed him for 20 years.
if u grew up in wny you know david and you know he was a good kid always put a smile on peoples faces minded his own buisness and for you perfect people who talk s*** about a man you dont know i pray god pays u for making his family suffer with your ignorance
20years for weed give me a break u moleste someones daughter n you get probation our justice systems are injust #freedavid #peckumybro4life