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A Jersey City man and a woman were charged with numerous drugs and weapons offenses and endangering the welfare of children.

(Journal file photo)

Police followed a man to a Jersey City apartment where two children lived with their mom and they uncovered a drug den that reeked of urine and feces and was filled with garbage, roaches, vermin, flies and rotting food, police said.

The conditions in the apartment were so horrific that some police investigating in Tyvek hazardous materials suits Sunday night became ill, according to a police report.

Justin Michael Nesmith, 23, who unwittingly led police to the Bergen Avenue apartment building, and the 41-year-old woman who lives there were charged with numerous drug and weapons charges as well as endangering the welfare of children, police said.

Nesmith's bail was set at $100,000 cash or bond, and the woman's bail was set at $50,000 cash or bond, said officials at the Hudson County jail, where the two were being held.

The woman's name is being withheld to protect the identity of her 17- and 5-year-old sons, who slept in a room with "an overpowering smell of urine and feces" and feces smeared on the walls, police said.

Garbage, dirty dishes, cat litter and rotting food were also strewn about the apartment, according to the police report.

Inside the apartment, police said, they recovered 172 bags of heroin, 63 bags of crack cocaine, a bag with roughly 11 grams of cocaine, six jars with the drug PCP, 32 rounds of .380-caliber bullets, 30 hollow-point bullets and drug paraphernalia.

The two children were taken out of the home and placed in the custody of their godmother, police said.

The incident began when police responded to a high-crime area of Bergen Avenue as part of a narcotics investigation at 6:30 p.m. Sunday and found a large group of people known to members of the police Gang Unit from prior incidents, police said.

When police dispersed the crowd, Nesmith appeared to be acting suspiciously in front of the building and then went inside and up to the third floor, police said. The odor of PCP grew stronger as officers followed him to a third-floor apartment and even stronger when Nesmith opened the door.