New Jersey Suburb Stunned by 15 Arrests in Latest Drug Raid
By TINA KELLEY
Published: March 14, 2007
EAST HANOVER, N.J., March 13 — Students and other residents of this small Morris County suburb were struggling on Tuesday to make sense of the weekend arrests of a high school football player and his volunteer coach in the third high-profile drug roundup since last spring.
“On the surface, they were decent kids who know what’s stupid and what’s not so stupid,” said Timothy Biggiani, 21, a 2004 graduate of Hanover Park High School who said he had been in school with some of the suspects. “There are a lot of drugs floating around,” he added. “There were a lot of kids with brand-new BMWs.”
After an investigation of several months sparked by a routine traffic stop, the county prosecutor announced on Monday that 10 law enforcement agencies had broken up a steroids-manufacturing operation and arrested 15 people, including Anthony M. Cuppari, 24, a former Hanover Park football player who volunteers as a coach, and a 17-year-old now on the team, who was not named because of his age.
Officers seized cocaine, heroin and other drugs as well as weapons and vehicles worth more than $300,000 in weekend raids on suspects’ homes in East Hanover and Kendall Park.
Mr. Cuppari was charged with drug distribution, conspiracy to manufacture steroids, and distributing gamma hydroxybuterate (GHB), also known as the date-rape drug, to the high school student. No one answered the door at his home on Hillside Drive on Tuesday.
Michael B. Dente, also 24, who was charged with drug distribution and conspiracy to manufacture steroids and GHB, had a manufacturing facility in his basement on McKinley Avenue, prosecutors said.
The principal of Hanover Park, Edward Franko, referred questions to the acting superintendent of the district, whose office sent reporters to the county prosecutor’s office.
Stanley Hansen, the police chief in this township of 11,600, said it was the third major drug arrest in less than a year. Last June, a senior from Hanover Park was arrested on prom night in connection with allegations of drug dealing, and in July, 53 teenagers and young adults, some from Hanover Park and Whippany Park high schools, were charged with manufacturing, dealing or using OxyContin and other painkiller drugs. Since then, both schools have hired full-time police officers, and are considering adopting a policy of random drug tests, the chief said.
Jenna Wortmann, 16, a Hanover Park student who plays basketball and softball, said as she left school for a nearby Burger King: “We’re definitely going to get a bad rep, after last year with the other drug busts, and other teams are going to criticize us for taking ’roids. We’re not going to get around that.”
Last June, New Jersey became the first state in the nation to test high school students in all sports for performance-enhancing drugs. Under the state Interscholastic Athletic Association’s plan, all athletes in post-season competition are subject to random steroid testing, with about 5 percent of them required to take urine tests.
Chief Hansen said that drugs were prevalent throughout the region. Last year, 44 people in the county died of overdoses, the largest number in 10 years.
“It’s probably happening everywhere,” the chief said. “The town next door probably has the same thing, but it hasn’t surfaced yet. The problem is not confined to a geographic border.”
Meghan Goskowsky, 15, a freshman at Hanover Park High, said she was not surprised by the recent raids. “A lot of people in our high school, they do drugs,” she said. “I don’t think any student is going to stop because someone tells them to. They already know the consequences. Because they choose to do it, it’s their choice.”
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