NY bail laws required most of 30 drug dealers busted on LI for peddling ‘tranq,’ cocaine and fentanyl to be ‘automatically released’: DA
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.”
