You might expect to draw the attention of the cops if you happen to allegedly leave 100 doses of heroin on a car on the Long Island Rail Road.
That’s what a couple of residents of East End are discovering after their arrest last month following a “long-term” multi-jurisdictional investigation by the East End Drug Task Force. The task force gets its funding from the District Attorney’s Office of Suffolk County and is comprised of various local and state police agencies and departments in the area.
According to a lieutenant with the Southampton Police, the defendants were arrested on July 27 and arraigned the next day in Southampton Town Justice Court.
The lieutenant stated that one defendant, an East Hampton resident, was observed “acting suspiciously” while on the train making its way eastbound through Southhampton. He disembarked in East Hampton. He was accused of “abandon[ing] 135 glassine envelopes of heroin” and subsequently arrested by the Manhattan Transit Authority (MTA) Police.
It is unknown what circumstances led to the second defendant’s arrest.
Hefty consequences
The train rider, 30, faces felony charges of fourth-degree criminal possession of controlled substances as well as criminal possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute. He has a $10,000 cash bail, or alternatively, a $40,000 bond.
The other defendant, also 30 and a Southampton resident, was arrested on two counts of third-degree criminal sale of controlled substances. He is free on a $2,000 cash bail.
The heroin problem has hit the Mineola area hard, just as it has in small towns all over the USA. In fact, according to the Nassau Police Department, the village of Island Park is number three in Nassau County for the most arrests per capita for heroin charges. Island Park is home to approximately only 5,000 residents.
Since the first quarter of the year, there has been almost a 50 percent uptick in the number of heroin arrests in that village than there were in the entire prior year.
Overdoses from opioid drugs and heroin are all too familiar. Family members are left to pick up the pieces of broken lives and children left behind.
Additional fallout
Another fallout from the heroin epidemic is that users turn into addicts who then engage in criminal enterprises like theft and drug dealing merely to supply their own habit. Because these are not hardened criminals, but desperate addicts, they frequently get arrested.
Not being savvy to police tactics and the legal system, they wind up as examples, convicted by prosecutors eager to tout high rates of conviction. Their lives are ruined — and they are still addicts. They will be sent to prisons rife with illegal contraband that includes heroin.
If you wind up caught up in the endless cycle of addiction and arrest, it’s time to break the cycle. Seek advice and guidance from a criminal defense attorney who has experience trying felony drug cases. Together, you and your attorney can develop the best defense strategy to fit your individual circumstances.