POUGHKEEPSIE – Several members of a Dutchess-based gun and drug trafficking network were arrested Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning by state troopers following an investigation that began in April 2022. The arrested were named in two sealed indictments opened by Dutchess County Court Judge Edward McLoughlin on Wednesday morning. Four individuals were indicted on 154 crimes related to the trafficking of ghost guns and assault weapons. A separate 63-count indictment charged seven subjects with the trafficking of several thousand counterfeit oxycodone pills that were actually fentanyl. Several of the individuals were named in both indictments.
The arrests recovered 31 firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, approximately 5,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl with a street value of about $150,000, and approximately $55,000 in cash, according to New York State Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James at a press conference at New York State Police Troop K Headquarters in Salt Point on Wednesday afternoon, shortly after two of her deputy attorneys general were in court for the arraignment of nine of the charged defendants. The tenth was taken into custody in Florida and will be extradited to New York.
“The individuals arrested today operated a dangerous network that trafficked untraceable ghost guns and flooded New York communities with fentanyl,” said Attorney General James. “This operation was made possible through my office’s partnerships with state and local law enforcement,” Attorney General James continued. The arraignments were the result of an eighteen-month joint investigation led by the Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG) Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) and the New York State Police’s (NYSP) Special Investigations Unit – Hudson Valley (SIU-HV) and Troop K – Violent Gang and Narcotics Enforcement Team (K-VGNET). The state authorities were assisted by the Dutchess County Drug Task Force,…
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