Hi, my name is Wayne Canastra, the new President of the NJNEOA. For those of you that do not know me, I have been a board member of the NJNEOA since 2010. I have served as the 3rd Vice President, 2nd Vice President and the 1st Vice President before being nominated to be the President of this association. I am a Sergeant with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and I have worked in law enforcement since 2003. I am not going to get into what I have done in Narcotics Investigations because no officer ever wants to hear another officer’s “war stories”. So, I will simply say that I am very proud of my accomplishments in narcotics investigations.

    The reason I got involved with the NJNEOA is because my friend, Al Camisa was the President and asked me to join. I worked with Al at the Prosecutor’s Office and he was the best supervisor that I ever worked with. When he retired, the NJNEOA was the avenue for us to continue working together. I appreciate all that Al has done for the NJNEOA. Al, took the NJNEOA and completely changed the direction creating a reputable narcotics training community. With the help of all the retired members of the NJNEOA, Al and a few key retired members have continued to help this organization run. Also, without the help of the entire board of directors, and everyone knowing their role and doing their part, we would not be able to function.

   I would like to thank my 1st Vice President, Nitin Daniels for doing an excellent job at the awards conference. This was the biggest awards conference to date. It is not easy to stand before 700 plus people and speak for over 3 hours. I know that when you get an award at the beginning of the ceremony and then have to sit and watch everyone else, it is sometimes cumbersome. However, think how Nitin feels doing his best to make it go as quickly and professional as possible. We appreciate everyone that attended and next year we will make it even better. Congratulations to all the awards recipients!

     As President, I want to continue to provide top notch training to the narcotics community. I also want to expand on our drug awareness program. I want to see the NJNEOA grow even bigger in the next few years.

    I encourage anyone that wants to be involved, provide feedback or to suggest a training to contact me directly on my cell phone 732-585-8436 or email me at president@njneoa.org.