By Noah Sanders, Founder of The Newark Chronicle
For more than a decade, one name sat at the top of Newark's most violent drug trade. Corey Hamlet — known on the street as "C-Blaze" — led the New Jersey set of the Grape Street Crips, a gang that started in the Jordan Downs housing projects of Watts, Los Angeles, and built a Newark branch that federal prosecutors say controlled heroin and crack sales across the city's public housing.
This is the story of that rise, the federal case that ended it, and what it left behind in the neighborhoods where it happened.
The set
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the DEA, the New Jersey Grape Street Crips ran drug trafficking and other criminal activity in Newark around 6th Avenue and North 5th Street, and inside public-housing complexes including Pennington Court, Oscar Miles, the Millard Terrell Homes, the John W. Hyatt Homes, and the former James Baxter Terrace.
Prosecutors said the gang committed murders, robberies, extortion, and witness intimidation to hold its territory — and that Hamlet, as the set's longtime leader, authorized six murders carried out by its members. They also said he kept running the set even while he was locked up.
The takedown
The case built slowly, then all at once. In May 2015, federal agents, the FBI, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, the Newark Police Department, and the Essex County Sheriff's Office carried out a coordinated takedown that arrested 50 alleged members and associates in two weeks.
In November 2016, a federal grand jury returned a 22-count indictment charging Hamlet and 13 others with racketeering conspiracy, seven murders, attempted murders, and drug trafficking. In the end, 71 defendants were charged in the investigation.
The trial and the sentence
After a two-month trial in Newark federal court, a jury convicted Hamlet in July 2018 on 10 counts, including RICO conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, firearms offenses, and conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.
In September 2018, Judge Madeline Cox Arleo sentenced him to two concurrent terms of life in federal prison.
He was not the only one. Ahmad Manley, known as "Fresh," was sentenced to 35 years for his role in a double murder and an attempted murder carried out on Hamlet's orders. Ahmed Singleton, known as "Gangsta-Moo," got 19 years for witness intimidation and racketeering.
What it left behind
The U.S. Attorney's office said the convictions dealt the Grape Street Crips a serious blow. And on paper, they did — the leadership was gone, and dozens of members were convicted.
But the blocks where it happened are still Newark. The same housing complexes. The same corners. The drug trade did not disappear with one conviction, and the families who lost people — to the violence and to the sentences — are still living with what happened.
What his case shows is what a decade of violence costs a neighborhood, what a federal takedown can and cannot fix, and what still needs to change in the places where it all happened.
The Newark Chronicle covers Newark news, housing help, jobs, culture, and community — and the cases that shape this city. Got a story or a tip? Email thenewarkchronicle@gmail.com.
Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey; Drug Enforcement Administration, New Jersey Division.
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