Pizza Shop Drug Case Defendants Sentenced The Two Men Had Plea-bargained. The Deptford Restaurant Is Alleged To Have Been The Base Of An International Ring.

WOODBURY — A Gloucester County judge yesterday sentenced two defendants involved in the so-called Deptford pizza shop case to prison after they negotiated plea agreements.

George Marx, a 56-year-old Haddonfield man who is already serving a 60-year state prison term for a bank robbery, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Joseph F. Lisa to 10 years on a drug-distribution charge and five years for violation of probation. Marx's record includes a murder conviction.

Also sentenced was Manuel Malo, 22, who worked as a cook at Giuseppe Gambino's Plaza 47 Pizza and Sub Shop, which was raided by police in May 1993 after a two-year wiretap probe. Police alleged that the pizza shop was a base for international drug distribution and gambling, and arrested up to 50 people. Malo was sentenced to four years in state prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Gambino faces a charge that he was a kingpin of the alleged drug- trafficking network and, if convicted, could face life in prison.

Authorities described Malo, a native of Ecuador who greeted the judge amiably while entering the courtroom yesterday, as Gambino's right-hand man. He pleaded guilty June 23 to the conspiracy charge.

According to Assistant Prosecutor John Mennite, Malo admitted that while working at the restaurant, he delivered packages of the drug from Luis Lenis, 28, a native of Colombia, to Jewell Kidd and Anthony Mascio.

Lenis pleaded guilty last month to selling cocaine to Gambino. Kidd and Mascio also have pleaded guilty to drug-distribution charges.

Investigators testified last summer that Malo was heard in 275 of the approximately 3,000 wiretaps they recorded between September 1991 and May 1993, and some of them involved drug deals.

Lisa said before sentencing Malo that while the defendant had no significant criminal record, he had played a "significant role" in the drug- distribution ring, that a substantial quantity of drugs had been involved, and that Malo was closely involved with Gambino. The judge also spoke of the organized nature of the criminal activity.

Lisa said that because Malo had served 408 days in jail, he may be eligible for immediate release. That will be decided by a parole board.