A Cherry Hill woman who was once found with more than 80,000 individual doses of PCP (about 840 grams) is now on her way to prison for possession and intent to distribute this dangerous narcotic, Acting New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced on Thursday.

For her leading role in this drug trafficking operation, 38-year old Dalia Figueroa will spend the next 13-years behind state prison bars.

Figueroa was found guilty in 2019 by a Camden County jury for first-degree possession with intent to distribute, second-degree conspiracy, second-degree possession of PCP with intent to distribute within 500 feet of a public park, and third-degree and possession of PCP with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school.

It was Detectives with the New Jersey State Police Crime Suppression South Unit, AG Platkin said, who gathered the information about drugs that were being shipped from somewhere in California to a home on South 8th Street in Camden.

New Jersey State Police, with this information in hand, waited outside that house on July 3, 2013, and when the package came to the address via UPS, Detectives asked the woman who accepted the package to see what was inside the box.

Detectives then had their smoking gun as about 840 grams of PCP was inside the package.

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Investigators learned that Figueroa was given permission by the woman who accepted the package, 55-year old Tracy Murphy, to have it delivered to her home.

Figueroa was arrested when she came to pick up the package that day and at that time, police found an extra 9 grams of PCP in her car.

Murphy later plead guilty to possession of PCP with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school, AG Platkin said, and she was eventually sentenced to probation.

“PCP is a hallucinogen that can cause violent or self-destructive behavior,” Acting Attorney General Platkin said in a written statement. “This prosecution sends the message that we will not tolerate those who are willing to profit by selling drugs that destroy lives.”

“I commend our trial team and the detectives of the New Jersey State Police whose vigilance led to the seizure of this shipment of PCP,” Director Lyndsay V. Ruotolo of the Division of Criminal Justice said in a written statement. “Through this investigation and prosecution, we stopped a large quantity of this substance from entering the community.”

“Drug trafficking can directly contribute to crime and violence in a community, especially PCP, which can be dangerous to its users and those around them because of its unpredictably volatile effects,” Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police said in a written statement. “This sentence is the product of our troopers and partners who continuously work together to target and remove drug dealers from our streets.”

AG Platkin also announced that Deputy Attorney General Veronica Vizzard and SDAG Cassandra Montalto tried the case for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Lauren Scarpa Yfantis, and DCJ Deputy Director Annmarie Taggart and were assisted by Analyst Kimberly Benjamin.

Defense Attorneys:

For Figueroa: Wayne Powell, Esq., Cherry Hill, N.J.

For Murphy: Cori Lehrfeld, Esq., Gigliotti & Lehrfeld, LLC, Cherry Hill, N.J.

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