NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ—Another public worker has been arrested as the State Police move to charge several people involved in a local drug and weapons sales network.

One week after being arrested and charged with conspiracy, Michael D. Vitanza has been suspended without pay from a job he has held since 1984 with North Brunswick Township.

A secretary for North Brunswick Mayor Francis Womack confirmed that Vitanza, a laborer with the township’s Department of Public Works, was suspended on Friday December 27.

The arrest occurred on December 19, the same day that police arrested Michael Mahony, New Brunswick’s Chief Housing Inspector.  Mahony, who has been with the city since 1994, was charged with distributing cocaine

Mahony and Vitanza were each released on $150,000 bail the following day.

According to records from 2011, Vitanza earned an annual salary of $53,756.  The records department at the county jail could only say that he was charged with conspiracy.

The investigation is continuing and a New Brunswick landlord named Paul Cano III remains in jail on charges he sold both drugs and weapons.  Cano owns four rental properties in New Brunswick as well as one property in North Brunswick.

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.