CAMDEN, NJ – Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina announced that a 24-year-old Camden drug dealer has been sentenced to eight years in New Jersey state prison for causing the death of a customer to whom he sold fentanyl-laced cocaine during the summer of 2019.
Marquese Smith will not become eligible for parole until 85 percent of the term has been served. He pled guilty in May to one count of Strict Liability for Drug-Induced Death (First Degree). The sentence was handed down September 3 in Superior Court in Mount Holly by the Hon. Gerard H. Breland, J.S.C.
The investigation began in June 2019 when officers from the Maple Shade Police Department responded to the Ryan’s Run West Apartment Complex and discovered the body of a 33-year-old woman who had fatally overdosed.
The Burlington County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded the cause of death was cocaine and fentanyl toxicity.
The investigation determined that the drugs used by the victim had been purchased from Smith, who was charged in October 2019.
Smith was prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Jeremy Lackey and Assistant Prosecutor Michael Angermeier, supervisor of the BCPO Gang, Gun and Narcotics Task Force (GGNTF). The investigation was conducted by the Maple Shade Police Department and the BCPO GGNTF.