Rahway Man Admits Dealing Fentanyl-Laced Crack, Killing 3: UCPO

RAHWAY, NJ — A Rahway man admitted to dealing a batch of fentanyl-laced crack cocaine that killed three people and hospitalized numerous others in Union County during the span of one day late last year, acting Union County Prosecutor Michael A. Monahan announced.

George Rayford, 39, pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of strict liability for a drug-induced death, a first-degree crime, for causing the deaths of 41-year-old Nicole Taylor, 53-year-old Kacina Vanderburg, and 67-year-old Harold Johnston, all Rahway residents, Monahan said.

On Dec. 22 Rayford distributed the deadly quantities of drugs out of his Rahway home on the 1200 block of Whelan Placeand by the end of the night Taylor, Vanderburg and Johnston had overdosed and died, according to Union County Homicide Task Force Supervisor Michael Henn, who is prosecuting the case.

An unknown number of other people also overdosed on the drugs that night, but survived. The six-week investigation was initiated by the Rahway Police Department and Detective James Crowell, and expanded to involve the Homicide Task Force, Union County Sheriff’s Office, and Woodbridge Police Department.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is much more powerful than heroin, was found in the toxicology of fewer than 20 percent of Union County’s fatal overdose victims in 2015, but that figure jumped to more than 70 percent in 2017, according to Monahan.

This case marked one of the first times local law enforcement encountered the drug mixed with cocaine, Monahan said.

Rayford was arrested at his home without incident in February 2018 and lodged in Union County Jail.

A sentencing date has been tentatively scheduled for Friday, March 15 before state Superior Court Judge Candido Rodriguez Jr. The State will recommend a sentence of 13 years in state prison, with at least 85 percent to be served before the possibility of parole under New Jersey’s No Early Release Act.

(Image via Union County Prosecutor’s Office: George Rayford, 39, of the 1200 block of Whelan Place in Rahway)

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