NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – At Wednesday’s Council meeting, New Brunswick City Councilman Kevin Egan said he was told that a New Brunswick police vehicle may have been involved in a drug crime charged to Andrew Ferrazzoli, 51, of Piscataway.

Ferrazzoli worked in the police department as a “services office manager” and was in charge of the department’s vehicle maintenance and purchasing.

“I think I heard that, I don’t know for sure, but he may have been in a vehicle from the New Brunswick police at the time of the problem.  I don’t know, but that’s what I heard,” Egan said.

Just seconds earlier, the city’s business administrator Thomas Loughlin had said he had “no reason to believe” that police vehicles were involved in the crime Ferrazzoli stands accused of.

Ferrazzoli was charged with possession of a “controlled dangerous substance” on February 22, just five days after he resigned from his position in the department.

However, court documents say his alleged crime was committed a full five days before his resignation.  On the day Ferrazzoli resigned, 33 people were charged by a joint Somerset-Middlesex county task force opeartion known as “Corridor Crackdown.”

Mr. Ferrazzoli’s name was absent from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office press release announcing the bust.  The release credited the New Brunswick Police Department and several other law enforcement agencies that worked on the operation.

Council President Robert Recine said, “If [Ferrazzoli]’s guilty… I’m glad he’s gone.”

“From what I understand there were some criminal charges, drug charges, filed in Somerset.  He resigned.  Whether he knew about that at the time, I assume he did and that’s why he resigned.”

Russell Marchetta, a spokesman for Mayor James Cahill, said Cahill had no comment on this story, which was first reported by NewBrunswickToday.com last Tuesday.

Ferrazzoli was hired by the department in 2010, despite a prior drug charge from 2004, also in Somerset County.  According to Loughlin, he did not have authorization to use city vehicles.

Editor at New Brunswick Today | 732-993-9697 | editor@newbrunswicktoday.com | Website

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.