POUGHKEEPSIE – Eight residents of Dutchess County were arrested by New York State Police Tuesday night following a lengthy investigation into the illegal sales of drugs and ghost guns in LaGrange and Poughkeepsie. The investigation was conducted by state police BCI, assisted by members of the New York State Attorney General’s Office (OAG).
The Attorney General’s Office had obtained sealed grand jury indictments against the eight defendants following the investigation into the sale of fentanyl in pill form and several AR-style assault rifles with no serial numbers, known as “Ghost Guns”.
The two separate indictments were unsealed by Dutchess County Court Judge Edward McLoughlin on Wednesday morning, with each defendant brought into the courtroom separately to learn of the indictments, one of which contained 154 counts of felony charges.
Muayad Qader, a married father of two who lives in the Town of Poughkeepsie was the only defendant to be indicted on all 154 counts in the indictment. The OAG says that Qader, an employee at a Valero Gas Station on Route 55 is facing several counts of criminal sale of a firearm and criminal sale of a controlled substance. Assistant Deputy Attorney General Kenyon Griffin, Qader sold many illegal firearms including 14 AR-style ghost rifles, an AR-style rifle that had been defaced by removing the serial number, and several other weapons.
One indictment was for the drug charges and the second was for the weapons charges. Judge McLoughlin remanded Qader to the Dutchess County Jail without bail.
Others arrested in the overnight sweep are:
- Christopher Evans – Released to probation on electronic monitoring because no charges were bail-eligible.
- Angel Williams – Released to probation on electronic monitoring because no charges were bail-eligible.
- Aaron Steppe – Released to probation on electronic monitoring because no charges were bail-eligible.
- Luis Gonzales – Remanded to the Dutchess County Jail without…
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