USA – NEW JERSEY According to U.S. Attorney John Giordano, a man was found guilty on March 18, 2025, for his part in a plan to sell cocaine from California to New Jersey.
It took two days of trial before Chief U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb found Marvin Murphy, 48, guilty. Murphy lives in Camden, New Jersey. As soon as the decision was announced, Judge Bumb put Murphy back in jail until his sentencing on July 17, 2025.
Court records and trial evidence show that between June and July 2021, Murphy worked with Carl Lee Holloway, Lavinston Lamar, and other people to sell and have cocaine with the purpose to sell it. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) carried out a fake operation as the last part of the investigation.
Holloway went to San Diego, California, on June 23, 2021, and met with a government agent who was pretending to be a drug dealer. Holloway worked out the details of getting at least 10 kilogrammes of cocaine to New Jersey during the meeting. After that, Holloway called Murphy, and the two kept in touch in the weeks before the planned drug swap.
On July 13, 2021, Holloway, Murphy, and Lamar all showed up at a hotel in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, on their own, each with a bag full of cash. The three guys brought more than $340,000 to the place where they were meeting. They met with undercover agents in a hotel room and looked at a kilogramme of cocaine that the agents gave them for a short time before being caught there and then.
Both of Murphy’s partners in crime had already been convicted by Chief Judge Bumb. Holloway got 120 months in jail after pleading guilty to the same conspiracy charge. Lamar pleaded guilty and admitted to breaking the rules of his supervised release from a previous charge. At first, he was given a sentence of 114 months, but it was later lowered to 100 months.
Murphy could spend up to 20 years in federal jail and have to pay a $1 million fine for planning to sell cocaine.
Special agents from Homeland Security Investigations led by Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel (Newark) and Special Agent in Charge Shawn S. Gibson (San Diego) did the investigation that led to Murphy’s conviction. They had help from the Mount Laurel Police Department, which was led by Chief Timothy Hudnall.
From the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Camden, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelyn Waegener are being in charge of the case.
