21 Charged in Street Level Drug Sales

The Rockland County District Attorney’s office has filed criminal charges against 21 alleged drug dealers from New York, New Jersey and Florida for selling illegal narcotics to undercover police detectives.

According to District Attorney Thomas Zugibe the defendants are charged with selling oxycodone, Percocet, Ecstasy, powdered and crack cocaine and heroin to undercover police officers on 78 separate occasions during the past few months. The drug deals led to more than 80 counts of criminal sale and criminal possession of controlled substances.

The 21 suspects range in age from 20 to 67 years old and were arrested as part of an investigation that began in March into drug dealing in Haverstraw, Clarkstown, Orangetown, Haverstraw and Ramapo and the downtown areas of the villages of Suffern, Nyack and Haverstraw. According to the charges, some of the alleged illegal activities took place on East Washington Street in Pearl River, Depew Avenue in Nyack, Main Street in Haverstraw and Lafayette and Chestnut streets in Suffern.

Fifteen of the 21 defendants have prior criminal histories, with past arrests for burglary, robbery, weapons possession, assault, criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, petit larceny, conspiracy, criminal impersonation and reckless endangerment. Charges lodged against the different defendants include Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, a class “B” Felony and Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, a class “B” Felony, each punishable by up to nine years in prison.

The defendants include: Larnell Fortier, 22, of Central Nyack, who has an arrest record of criminal sale and criminal possession of controlled substances and felony robbery. He allegedly sold prescription pills to undercover officers several times this year. in 2013. Also arrested were: Richard Lennox, 36, of Pearl River; Kenneth Divone, 48, of Piermont; Kevin Pingol, 26, of Spring Valley; Rochelle Ferguson, 47, of Pomona; Javaan Davis, 31, of Ramapo; Nelson Sierra, 35, of Davie, FL; David Ward, 32, of New Rochelle; Jeffrey Polanco, 25, of Haverstraw; Terrance Donnelly, 20, of Garnerville; Carpio Perez-Lopez, 67, of Haverstraw; Emmanuel Aponte, 20, of Haverstraw; Jamie Torres, 42, of Pomona; Dominic White, 36, of Hillburn; Gustave Ducasse, 40, of Pomona; Jose Gonzalez, 25, of Paterson, NJ; Gregory Touzin, 28, of Spring Valley; Roberto Marin-Mendez, 56, of Mahwah, NJ; Norman Torres, 46, of West Haverstraw and Lashavies Walters, 38, of West Haverstraw.

In January of this year 28 individuals were indicted on similar drug charges in the same communities as a result of a four‐month undercover investigation targeting street level drug activities. The investigation is ongoing and further arrests are expected. Armed with search warrants law enforcement officers found prescription pills, cocaine, heroin and drug paraphernalia. They also used physical surveillance, and court‐authorized electronic surveillance.

“These arrests are the result of a coordinated law enforcement and prosecutorial initiative to rid our towns and villages of violent drug dealers who put our families at risk, District Attorney Zugibe said on Thursday. “The charges are serious and some defendants face up to a decade in state prison upon conviction.”