Leader of large Atlantic City-area drug ring sentenced to 14 years

The leader of an Atlantic City drug ring whose supply chain led to a drug cartel in Mexico was sentenced to 14 years in prison Friday. "It's what I needed to do to survive," Jewell Tutis said in his pre-sentencing report. "I cooked up coke to provide." But this wasn't a drug addict looking to fund their own use through sales, Assistant Prosecutor Kate Robinson told the judge. This was someone who led a multi-million dollar drug ring. Family member Toye Tutis even used his laundromat to traffic the drugs and then laundered the money through his other businesses, including TaJa Construction, Toye Tutis and his wife admitted admitted in November. "He could have chosen many other paths," Robinson said of Jewell Tutis. "He chose to sell a large quantity of drugs to make a profit." Over the course of the investigation, 10 kilograms of heroin were sized, and four kilograms of powder cocaine along with $160,000 in cash. In Tutis' home, there was about a kilogram of cocaine that, according to his own admission, he was cooking into crack in his kitchen. When members of the group were arrested in December 2014, 40 bags of heroin, $125,000 in cash, eight handguns, a shotgun,  two Tasers, ammunition, three bullet-proof vests, 10 motor vehicles, the contents of three bank accounts, and eight parcels of real estate. The street value of the drugs seized in the case had a street value of $2,250,000. Tutis did not speak at this sentencing. Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury sentenced him to 14 years in prison with no parole for seven years. He has credit for about two years.