A Brooklyn man who prosecutors say travelled back and forth to Atlantic City to manufacture and sell cocaine and methamphetamine has been sentenced to 20 years in New Jersey state prison, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office announced on Thursday, October 29.

Source: WFPG

Joseph Andrews, 42, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced on October 28 by Superior Court Judge Donna M. Taylor, according to the prosecutor's office. He had pleaded guilty on April 27, 2026, under a plea agreement in which prosecutors recommended the 20-year term that the judge imposed.

Two searches, two locations

The case began with two search warrants in January 2025. On January 9, 2025, investigators searched a property at 64 N. Pennsylvania Avenue in Atlantic City. Two weeks later, on January 23, 2025, they searched a room at the Super 8 Motel in the city.

Andrews was arrested in Atlantic City on January 23, 2025, the day of the motel search, and has been held at the Atlantic County Justice Facility ever since, prosecutors said — more than a year and a half in custody before sentencing.

A Brooklyn-to-Atlantic City operation

According to prosecutors, investigators determined that Andrews was using both locations — the North Pennsylvania Avenue property and the motel room — to manufacture and sell drugs, specifically cocaine and methamphetamine, and that he made regular trips between Brooklyn and Atlantic City to run the operation.

The investigation was led by the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office 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 programme, and the FBI.

Andrews pleaded guilty to three counts: first-degree maintaining a narcotics production facility, first-degree possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and second-degree possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

Other charges were already pending

At the time of the Atlantic City offences, Andrews also had several pending drug distribution charges in Kings County, New York — the borough of Brooklyn — according to the prosecutor's office. The office's announcement did not say how those New York cases have been resolved.

What happens next

Andrews now begins the 20-year state prison term imposed in Atlantic County. No appeal or further hearing in the New Jersey case was reported in the prosecutor's announcement, and the outcome of the separate pending Kings County charges remains unreported — the two points readers should watch for in any follow-up to this case.