TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that a member of the Nine Trey Gangsters set of the Bloods street gang was sentenced to state prison today for conspiring to murder another member of the gang in 2006.  The murder plot was foiled during a joint investigation by the New Jersey State Police and the Division of Criminal Justice.

Monaud Toussaint, 29, aka “Little Damu,” of Little Egg Harbor, was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, including 8 ½ years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Mark Fleming in Mercer County.  He pleaded guilty on July 8, 2013 to first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, admitting that he conspired with other members of the Nine Trey Gangsters to murder fellow gang member Almeen Palmer in 2006.  A high-ranking gang member had ordered that Palmer be murdered for violating the rules of the gang and trying to join another Bloods set.  The New Jersey State Police learned of the murder plot and, together with members of the Atlantic City Police Department, interrupted a meeting of gang members who were involved, making arrests and seizing guns.

“Through Operation Nine Connect, we put nearly 50 members of this violent street gang behind bars for lengthy state prison sentences,” said Acting Attorney General Hoffman.  “Not only did we protect the public from untold future acts of violence, we put an abrupt halt to a specific murder plot that this defendant and others were fully prepared to carry out.”

“Operation Nine Connect exemplifies how the Division of Criminal Justice and the State Police work in partnership with other agencies to target the leaders and the most dangerous members of violent criminal syndicates operating in New Jersey,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice.  “These operations are designed to protect public safety in New Jersey.”

Deputy Attorney General Daniel I. Bornstein prosecuted Toussaint and handled the sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau.

Toussaint was among 48 defendants indicted in June 2007 as a result of a joint investigation by the New Jersey State Police and the Division of Criminal Justice called “Operation Nine Connect.”  The Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau has obtained guilty pleas from all but a few of the defendants named in the indictment.  One leader of the gang, Michael Smart, 31, of Irvington, was tried in January 2009, convicted and sentenced to 70 years in state prison, including 46 years of parole ineligibility.  The other defendants received sentences of between five and 16 years in state prison.

The Division of Criminal Justice and New Jersey State Police were assisted in the investigation by the Newark Police Department, Irvington Police Department, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Atlantic City Police Department and Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office.

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