NJ man sentenced for 3 murders to protect drug empire

🔴 Gang leader sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars

🔴 Ordered killings to preserve drug ring

🔴 Drugs were loaded onto private planes, hidden in vehicles

The leader of a drug ring that shipped massive amounts of heroin and cocaine into New Jersey has been sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years.

Michael Healy, 44, was convicted of three murders after a four-week trial in April 2024.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, Healy orchestrated three killings in 2018 between February and April. The killings were done to stop informants from cooperating with federal investigators.

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“When Healy believed that someone in his drug trafficking enterprise was cooperating with law enforcement, he demonstrated that he was willing to go to the greatest lengths possible – to commit multiple acts of murder – to protect his profitable enterprise," U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said.

Healy had some of his dirty work done by members of the Brick City Brims, a New Jersey set of the Bloods that operates in East Orange.

They were sent to kill an informant. After they killed an innocent bystander by mistake, Healy had the gang members go back to finish the job. Healy then killed the third victim himself.

Drugs shipped into New Jersey

According to Habba, Healy used connections with the Bloods to ship drugs from California to New Jersey. He developed those connections while serving time in Maryland state prison.

After his release in 2012, Healy went to Newark and formed his drug ring.

He had massive quantities of illegal drugs including cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana into New Jersey.

READ MORE: 26 people charged in sprawling open-air NJ drug market, cops say

The drugs were put on private aircraft, inside secret compartments on vehicles, and sent through the mail using the U.S. Postal Service.

Once the drugs were in New Jersey, Healy's drug ring repacked them at stash houses for distribution. Bloods members helped sell the drugs throughout East Orange.

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