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Was part of conspiracy to ship 500 lbs. of marijuana to New Jersey

Roy Winston Harte of Irvington was sentenced to 12 years in state prison Thursday for his role in a drug ring that shipped more than 500 pounds of marijuana from Arizona to New Jersey using UPS and FedEx.

Four other members of the drug ring were previously sentenced to prison.

Harte’s sentence includes six years of parole ineligibility, state Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor said. Harte was sentenced by state Superior Court Judge Ronald D. Wigler in Newark.

Harte, 52, was convicted at trial on Oct. 7 of three counts of first-degree distribution of marijuana, two counts of first-degree possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, one count of second-degree conspiracy, and one count of third-degree distribution of marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school.

Deputy Attorney General Veronica Allende prosecuted the case. Harte was charged as the result of a joint investigation by the State Police, the Division of Criminal Justice and Arizona Department of Public Safety.

A June 29, 2010 superseding indictment charged Harte and four co-defendants with conspiring in 2007 to ship about 513 pounds of marijuana via UPS and FedEx from Arizona to a business address in Fairfield, where Harte worked as a production manager. The other four defendants pleaded guilty in September on the eve of trial.

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“The five defendants in this case were major drug traffickers, as evidenced by the more than 500 pounds of marijuana that we seized with our law enforcement partners,” state Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa said. “Thanks to an outstanding multi-agency investigation and prosecution, we successfully interdicted their drug shipping operation and all five now face major prison time.”

“Criminals don’t confine their illicit enterprises within geographic borders,” Taylor said. “Fortunately, we don’t let borders or jurisdictional boundaries restrict our investigations either. This case involved great teamwork by state law enforcement agencies in New Jersey and Arizona, as well as federal and local agencies.”

The four people were sentenced previously by Judge Wigler, after each pleaded guilty to first-degree distribution of marijuana and third-degree distribution of marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school:

Donald H. Giddings, also known as Tyrone Johnson, 46, of Queens, who also pleaded guilty to bail jumping, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, including 9 years of parole ineligibility;

Sharon Vanessa Phillips, 35, of Maricopa City, Az., was sentenced to 10 years in prison, including 40 months of parole ineligibility;

Gary Leyton Brown, 37, of Fort Myers, Fl., was sentenced to 13 years in prison, including 6 ½ years of parole ineligibility; and

James McKoy, 50, of Brooklyn, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, including five years of parole ineligibility.

The investigation was conducted by Det. Sgt. 1st Class Mark Primerano, Det. Chris Wright and other members of the State Police Drug Trafficking Central and North Units with assistance from Det. Charles Zampino of the Fairfield police.

—TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM