New Jersey Star Ledger
September 13, 2005
BY RICK HEPP
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
SARAH FlICEIME THE ETAE.I.EDGER
Moises Hernandez, center, is escorted out of the Union County annex building after being booked on charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering, official misconduct and falsifying reports.
Union County authorities yesterday arrested a decorated State Police narcotics detective and charged him with disclosing confidential information about an unmarked vehicle so the kingpin of a multimillion-dollar drug ring could evade surveillance.
Detective Sgt. Moises Hernandez turned himself in to prosecutors at r p.m. after a grand jury indicted the 19-year veteran on charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering, official misconduct and falsifying reports. He was being held last night at the Union County jail on $150,000 bail.
Authorities alleged Hernandez used a state motor vehicle database on Feb. 22 to look up an unmarked State Police vehicle being used to tail reputed heroin and cocaine dealer Christian Thillet, then gave the vehicle's description to one of Millet's underlings. Hernandez also is charged with falsifying a police report he was required to file after accessing the database.
"He placed the safety of all those officers, including other state troopers working the case, in great jeopardy," Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow said at a news conference announcing the indictment of Hernandez and 20 others in connection with the drug ring.
Authorities initially announced charges against the 20 alleged dealers and suppliers in April following a large-scale bust by more than 220 federal, state, county and local officers. They said the dug operated in Union County and shipped huge amounts of high-purity heroin to Newark, Camden, New York City and Pittsburgh.
Hernandez became a suspect after authorities wiretapping a telephone overheard ding suspect Aid-win Vega discussing several possi ble illegal activities involving the trooper, sources said. State Police suspended Hernandez in June from his $78,000-a-year job.
"Sadly, this law enforcement officer is now one of the co-defendants in this case that involved bringing in six kilograms of high-grade heroin into the metropolitan area every single day," Romankow said.
Hemandez's attorney said his client is innocent of the charges and contended Hernandez was looking up the vehicle as part of his job as an undercover narcotics detective.
"He is a soldier in the war on drugs, not a player, and the prosecutor simply got it wrong," said defense attorney Myles Malman, a former federal prosecutor from Florida. "Anything that Mo Hernandez did, he did as a state trooper and he did it to fririher an investigation, not harm it."
State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes said he hoped the charges would not mar the good work his troopers have been doing.
"Any time you get something like this, it is very disturbing," Fuentes said. "But don't let that be a blight on all the good things happening in this agency. We're going to continue on."
Authorities said it was unclear how long Hernandez had been working with Vega, but they confirmed the trooper had not registered the suspected dealer as a confidential informant.
Hernandez, 39, had earned a reputation in the State Police as a courageous trooper, particularly while working undercover in the narcotics unit since 1990, according to several people. He also earned a commendation after he came to the aid of a Bergen County detective involved in an arrest last October at a South Hackensack motel that resulted in the fatal shooting of one of three suspects.
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