A 42-year-old Brooklyn man was sentenced Wednesday to an aggregate 20 years in New Jersey State Prison for running a drug production operation that stretched from an Atlantic City residence to an Atlantic City motel room. Joseph Andrews was convicted of maintaining a narcotics production facility and two counts of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, closing out a case that began with a pair of search warrants executed in Atlantic City early last year.
According to shorelocalnews.com, Andrews was sentenced on first-degree maintaining a narcotics production facility, first-degree possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and second-degree possession with intent to distribute cocaine. As News12 New York reported, prosecutors said Andrews manufactured and sold cocaine and methamphetamine while traveling back and forth between Brooklyn and Atlantic City.
Two Search Warrants, Two Locations
Investigators first moved on January 9, 2025, executing a search warrant at a residence on North Pennsylvania Avenue in Atlantic City, the report notes. Two weeks later, on January 23, 2025, police searched a room at the Super 8 Motel, and Andrews was arrested that same day in Atlantic City. He had been held at the Atlantic County Justice Facility ever since, per the same account.
Prosecutors said Andrews used both the Brooklyn and Atlantic City locations to manufacture and sell controlled substances, specifically cocaine and methamphetamine, in Atlantic City. The case was built by the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office's Gangs, Guns, and Narcotics Unit, with assistance from the Atlantic City Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Liberty Mid-Atlantic High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, and the FBI, the station's report states.
Guilty Plea Came Months Before Sentencing
Andrews pleaded guilty on April 27, 2026, entering a negotiated agreement that recommended the 20-year sentence he ultimately received this week. At the time of the offenses, he also had multiple pending charges out of Kings County, New York, for distribution of controlled dangerous substances, according to the same report.
Not an Isolated Case on the Boardwalk
Andrews's case is not the only one this month tying a motel room in Atlantic City to a cocaine production operation. A jury in Atlantic County convicted 40-year-old Ricardo Berrios of attempted murder, maintaining a narcotics production facility, and multiple drug and weapons offenses, as nj.com reported earlier this month. Berrios ran his cocaine manufacturing operation out of a different Atlantic City motel room, where police seized heroin, fentanyl, and drug paraphernalia during an unrelated search. Berrios was also in possession of nearly 37 grams of cocaine and 73 bags of heroin. Berrios is scheduled to be sentenced on December 15, nj.com noted.
