Authorities say they were hunting for Luqman Abdullah, a notorious criminal in Union County. He turned himself in over the weekend.
ELIZABETH — One of Union County's most wanted drug dealers, a man authorities believe responsible for flooding Essex and Union counties with more than $700,000 worth of cocaine a week, has turned himself in, according to the Union County Prosecutor's Office.
Luqman Abdullah, who has 15 prior arrests and is thought to have at one time controlled much of Elizabeth's cocaine trade, voluntarily walked into the sheriff's office on Friday.
Prosecutor Theodore Romankow has described Abdullah, who has been a top priority for more than four years, as no "ordinary street drug salesman," and as a man who worked "on a higher level."
The 31-year-old alleged Bloods gang member has been at large since April 2009, when a series of raids, dubbed "Operation Red Zone" tore apart a drug ring that had the Elizabeth cocaine trade in a choke hold for several years, authorities said. Police raided several locations including an apartment on Chancellor Avenue in Newark that held “nothing but drugs, guns and the equipment necessary to cut and process cocaine,” Romankow said. The inside of the home was covered in cocaine dust, Romankow said.
The gang also used a stash house in Sayreville, police said.
Approximately seven pounds of cocaine — enough to fill more than 30,000 vials for street level distribution — was seized from a stash house that Abdullah and his two closest lieutenants frequented in Newark, the prosecutor said.
And though that cocaine operation was largely dismantled after the raid, Abdullah remained at large.
His criminal record includes seven felony convictions for aggravated assault, burglary, manufacturing narcotics and other drug and weapons offenses.
His rise to prominence began nearly a decade ago on the streets of Elizabeth when he helped kidnap a rival drug dealer, stuffed the man into the trunk of his car and shot him, according to Romankow. He and three other Bloods members sprayed bullets into the trunk, shut it and left the Dodge Intrepid parked on the street, authorities said.
The victim survived and was discovered the next day by a truck driver who heard his cries for help.
Abdullah served jail time in connection with that shooting. But when released, he allegedly tightened his control of the cocaine trade in Elizabeth, then expanded into Newark, authorities said. Anyone selling cocaine on his turf had to purchase it from him, or face retribution, authorities said.
Police almost had him twice in 2009, but the former track star made one daring escape after another, managing to elude authorities for years.
In April, 2009, he outran a police pursuit through a crowded mall parking lot in Edison and across six lanes of bustling highway traffic. He disappeared again in July, after witnesses spotted him in the third row of a concert at Giants Stadium.
Abdullah again used his speed to elude police in October of the same year, dashing across six lanes of highway traffic and disappearing into a wooded area to evade Clifton police, who pulled him over on Route 3.
It was not immediately clear why he turned himself in on Friday.
Abdullah is charged with racketeering, maintaining a narcotics production facility and numerous drug and weapon offenses. He was taken to Union County jail in lieu of $5 million bail.
James Queally and Julie O'Connor contributed to this report.