XPost: alt.politics.democrats, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics, alt.society.liberalism   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   More than two dozen alleged drug traffickers were busted for their   
   involvement in three crime rings that peddled “tranq,” fentanyl and   
   cocaine throughout Long Island – but most of them were cut loose almost   
   immediately thanks to New York’s bail reform laws, the Suffolk County   
   District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.   
      
   Despite the seriousness of the allegations, only 10 of the defendants   
   charged in the sweeping case could be held on bail – and the other 20 were   
   “automatically released as we stood helplessly by,” Suffolk County DA Ray   
   Tierney said at press conference.   
      
   The three indictments — containing a total of 132 charges — said alleged   
   gang members Dushane Telfer, 30, of North Amityville; Paris Parks, 31, of   
   Greenport; and Gabriel Fernandez, 33, of West Babylon led separate   
   operations that moved massive amounts of illicit narcotics.   
      
   Their nefarious deeds allegedly led to the death of at least one person:   
   Michelle Tomitz, a 30-year-old woman whose six-year-old daughter was left   
   without a mom after Tomitz overdosed on a lethal mixture of fentanyl,   
   cocaine and xylazine – the animal sedative commonly known by its street   
   name, “tranq” – in February, Tierney said.   
      
   “Sadly this is not — by any stretch of the imagination — a unique instance   
   here in Suffolk County, anywhere else in New York state or the country,”   
   Tierney said, adding that 399 people died from fentanyl last year on the   
   eastern half of Long Island.   
      
   “This is quite clearly an epidemic in our society, and quite clearly   
   something that we need to address,” he continued. “We need to stop talking   
   about it, paying lip service to public safety. We need to start coming up   
   with solutions. And we’re here today to implore our legislators to act.”   
      
   Under New York’s 2019 criminal justice reforms, only class A felonies —   
   the most serious — are eligible for bail. In the past, Tierney has griped   
   that the lax law lets dealers off the hook far too often.   
      
   “In New York, we have loopholes a mile wide — and drug dealers are taking   
   advantage,” Tierney told The Post in March.   
      
   Tomitz’s fatal dose allegedly came from a drug ring run by Telfer, an   
   alleged member of the Bloods gang, and Oshane Perkins, who were the   
   leaders of what investigators called a “large-scale fentanyl and cocaine   
   trafficking operation” that spanned the length of Suffolk County.   
      
   But the Empire State doesn’t have a “death by dealer” statute — meaning   
   authorities could only charge the two men with selling drugs to the   
   deceased woman, Tierney said.   
      
   “In New York State, we have currently no additional charges for causing   
   the death of another individual through the sale of these deadly   
   substances,” he told reporters.   
      
   Still, Telfer and Perkins face top charges of first degree criminal   
   possession of a controlled substance – which could put them away for more   
   than two decades, if convicted.   
      
   The alleged leaders of the other two operations, Parks – also an alleged   
   Blood members – and Fernandez, said to be part of the Trinitarios gang,   
   were also hit with serious drug charges that could put them away for up to   
   20 years each if convicted, authorities said.   
      
   All three ringleaders, as well as Perkins, 29, of North Amityville, are   
   currently jailed, with bonds of between $750,000 and $1 million each.   
      
   The lengthy investigation pulled in a number of local, state and federal   
   law enforcement agencies, all of whom helped bust up the expansive rings,   
   the release said.   
      
   Telfer was charged alongside Perkins and Omar Reynoso, a 36-year-old from   
   Woodside, Queens, for moving drugs between Feb. 17 and June 11 – including   
   some sold to undercover agents, the indictment said.   
      
   They allegedly had felony-worthy weights of fentanyl and cocaine in their   
   possession when police raided their homes.   
      
   The 763 grams of fentanyl cops recovered is enough to kill more than   
   380,000 people, Tierney said.   
      
   Reynoso, who faces up to 12 years in jail for a third-degree drug charge,   
   was one of the defendants released because his charges were not eligible   
   for bail.   
      
   Fernandez and Lusbin Antonio Hernandez-Garcia, a 34-year-old from   
   Riverhead, allegedly led a second ring that bought and sold cocaine   
   throughout Suffolk County from March to July, authorities said.   
      
   They also sold narcotics to undercover officers at least eight times, the   
   indictment said.   
      
   The third ring was allegedly run by Parks, who between February and July   
   conspired to sell “large-scale amounts of cocaine and fentanyl throughout   
   Suffolk County,” the DA’s office said in a press release.   
      
   He, along with his drug-dealing crew, sold cocaine, heroin and fentanyl to   
   undercover cops worth thousands of dollars, the release said.   
      
   When authorities searched his place, they found 236 grams of fentanyl —   
   enough to kill 115,000 people, Tierney said.   
      
   The DA also said that one defendant, Stephen Warren, has already been   
   arrested again; this time, for allegedly selling crack on Sept. 6.   
      
   Warren, who posted bail in the drug trafficking case, was driving a stolen   
   car when he was picked up, prosecutors said.   
      
   “This revolving door of justice needs to stop,” Tierney said.   
      
   “We need help in a number of areas with regard to the opioid drug overdose   
   crisis, and we hope if our legislators don’t listen to us, at least   
   hopefully they’ll listen to the Tomitz family.”   
      
   Tomitz’s parents, Mary and Kevin, spoke briefly at the press conference   
   about how drug use ravaged their family.   
      
   “Your child passed away from drugs, and something needs to be done,” Mary   
   said. “We’re losing too many people … too many young people.”   
      
   https://nypost.com/2023/09/13/authorities-arrest-30-for-drug-trafficking-   
   on-long-island/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)