A drug dragnet was carried out in Sullivan County recently under the joint participation of a wide variety of federal and state officials. The New York State Police announced the raid, stating that law enforcement officers seized drugs, weapons, vehicles and cash. The drug charges filed were connected with what authorities said was a large amount of cocaine and heroin.
The State Police reported that they received information to start their investigation in Sept. of 2015. The information was in connection with the alleged distribution of heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, focusing in Sullivan County. On March 9 and 10, police conducted their sweep and arrested 30 people, all reportedly members of a drug trafficking ring.
Police named two New York male residents as the ringleaders of the alleged conspiracy. They are both alleged to have sold and distributed the drugs throughout Sullivan County. It is not clear to what extent each of the remaining 28 individuals are accused of participating in the operation. A wide variety of charges are usually filed in a drug sweep, which almost always is alleged to result in the seizure of weapons and other contraband.
One problem that occurs often in a massive dragnet is that some people who may have purchased small amounts of a drug will get swept into the widespread police net and become essentially tagged as big-time drug dealers. It is one of the jobs of criminal defense counsel in such matters to weed out the clients who had little or no involvement in a drug conspiracy by presenting a vigorous defense on their behalf. In some cases, New York state prosecutors will agree with the defendant’s evidence, or more aptly the prosecutor’s lack of it, and allow the drug charges to be dismissed or significantly reduced.
Source: New City, NY Patch, “UPDATE: 27 Arrested in Hudson Valley Drug Trafficking Bust“, Lanning Taliaferro, Mar. 11, 2016
