Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler announces the arrest of 15 people for a drug trafficking scheme upstate, including the director of the Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence program Michael Rodriguez, at a press conference in Middletown on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023.
Screenshot courtesy Orange County Sheriff’s Office Facebook
Investigators found that Bronx anti-gun violence activist Michael Rodriguez was hiding “in plain sight” when they seized illegal guns and drugs from his Yonkers apartment.
Orange County New York law enforcement officials announced the arrests of 15 people for an alleged interstate drug trafficking conspiracy on Tuesday. Said to be the main supplier of the drug network was 48-year-old Michael Rodriguez — a Yonkers resident and the director of the nonprofit Good Shepherd Services’ program Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence, known as B.R.A.G.
The Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said that Rodriguez could now face 12.5-25 years on conspiracy charges, and up to 24 years for cocaine possession. He was booked at Orange County Jail without bail last Thursday, where he remains.
In a press conference from Middletown, New York on Tuesday, Hoovler and Orange County police officers detailed the nearly two-year investigation — an undercover effort dubbed “Operation Hide in Plain Sight” — that led to Rodriguez’s arrest, as well as 14 others.
The original target was an Orange County resident by the name of Angelica Rodriguez — no relation to Michael Rodriguez — who investigators said was an alleged big-time narcotic supplier in Middletown from the time she was 15 years old. Law enforcement tapped Angelica Rodriguez’s phone, they said, which led them to her many associates — including Michael Rodriguez, the alleged main supplier.
Hoovler said cops seized more than $165,000 in cash, two guns — one with a defaced serial number — and more than 1.5 kilos of cocaine along with other…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply