Police officer charged as part of Camden drug ring

Ashley Bailey joined the Camden County police force in July 2013

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when young officers like herself began flooding the streets to quell violence in one of the nation's most dangerous cities.

In the previously abandoned, two-story redbrick rowhouse where she lived in the Liberty Park neighborhood, she checked on neighbors - "You guys OK down there?" she would ask - and parked her cruiser out front.

Bailey, authorities said, was also a mole.

Her husband, they said, helped lead a drug ring that sold $1.2 million of narcotics annually, dealing heroin and crack cocaine from the rowhouses of Camden to the Shore towns of Atlantic County.

Bailey kept an eye on police movements for the ring, offering details from police reports and confidential departmental briefings, authorities said.

Investigators, upon learning of her husband's involvement, also quietly watched her.

On Wednesday, Bailey was one of 40 people charged in the drug network - one so large the Camden County Prosecutor's Office provided a sheet with a family tree of connections. Her case represents perhaps the biggest blemish to the Camden County Police Department since it started in May 2013, after the city force was disbanded.

Seventeen of those charged are accused buyers from Medford, Mullica Hill, and Mount Ephraim. This week, authorities seized $85,000 worth of drugs and four firearms, including an automatic rifle, during searches of properties in Haddon Township, Camden, and Williamstown. The investigation was conducted by county, state, and federal agencies.

Bailey, 28, has been suspended without pay from her $43,177-a-year job pending termination and faces official-misconduct and conspiracy charges. Her husband, Edwin Ingram, 30, was also charged with conspiracy. Authorities said he and his brother, Nathan, 35, helped lead the group.

The Prosecutor's Office is reviewing Bailey's cases as an officer but doesn't believe the charges will affect any indictable cases or those that involve shootings, homicides, or other major crimes, spokesman Andy McNeil said.

It's unclear how long authorities monitored Bailey, but she remained on street duty during that period, Camden County Police Chief Scott Thomson said Wednesday. The department, he said, thought Bailey did not pose a threat to officers or residents.

"She was given the benefit of the doubt," Thomson said, adding, "I don't think she knew we were keeping an eye on her."

Mary Eva Colalillo, Camden County prosecutor, agreed Bailey wasn't a risk to anyone.

"None whatsoever," she said. "She was monitored."

Authorities declined to say how exactly they watched Bailey.

Edith Blevins, 69, who lives on Bailey's street, said she hoped police were wrong about her friendly neighbor, but she also disputed that Bailey's alleged involvement in a drug ring didn't pose a danger to others.

"If she was involved, of course she's a threat," Blevins said. "Because when they come after each other, they kill each other. Of course it's a threat to us."

One of the drug network's alleged leaders, Donyell Calm, 31, was involved in a shootout in April near South Sixth Street and Ferry Avenue in Camden. The man he shot, Qujuan Land, 30, survived and may have acted in self-defense, authorities said. The Prosecutor's Office is considering dropping the aggravated-assault charge against him.

A string of shootings "terrorizing" the nearby Centerville neighborhood, Thomson said, led police to the drug ring in the first place.

At some point - Thomson declined to say when - Camden County police learned Bailey's husband was a member of the network and alerted the county Prosecutor's Office and state police.

Edwin Ingram's criminal record dates to 2005, when he was charged with possessing cocaine. The next year, he was charged with aggravated assault.

It's unknown how long Bailey and Ingram have been married, but background checks on police applicants typically alert a department when a spouse has a criminal history. Thomson declined to say whether he knew of Ingram's past in Bailey's case.

"Just because somebody may be related to somebody," he said, "that's not an automatic disqualifier for employment."

On Wednesday at Bailey's home, where a security camera hung above the door and a half-empty, still-open Mike's Mango Punch bottle sat on the porch, no one answered the door. At a home listed for her husband's family, a table blocked entry to the porch, and a large dog stood guard.

Police have tried to eliminate corruption in Camden in the past.

In 2009, the Prosecutor's Office dropped cases against 200 people after the FBI discovered a rogue narcotics squad of Camden police was fabricating arrest reports and stealing money from suspected dealers. A $3.5 million settlement was eventually reached among suspects who filed federal lawsuits.