Nassau police: 100 arrested in heroin drug sweep
Saying Nassau County is determined to crack down on heroin use, county officials announced Tuesday they arrested nearly 100 people during a monthlong drug sweep that also netted a convicted rapist and the ex-boyfriend of a teenage girl who died of a heroin overdose last year.
"We're really hammering it right now, and we're going to stay on it," Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence W. Mulvey said of the county's anti-heroin effort, vowing the fight would not be affected by budget cuts, especially in the aftermath of the death of Natalie Ciappa, the Massapequa teenager who died of a heroin overdose in June.
County Executive Thomas Suozzi said he is encouraging police to continue combating heroin. "We must do everything we can to stop this menace," Suozzi said in a written statement.
Authorities are expected to detail their latest heroin assault Wednesday when they talk about "Operation Smack-Down," and how undercover police blanketed the county, working almost every day between Jan. 14 and Monday to arrest people who were allegedly buying or selling drugs, or both, police said
Heroin was involved in about 88 of the arrests to be announced Wednesday, police said. In 2008 police made about 211 heroin arrests. In 2003 there were about 103 heroin arrests in the county, said Det. Lt. Peter Donohue of the narcotics and vice bureau.
During the latest crackdown, police said they seized nearly 5,000 bags of heroin with a value of about $25,000, three weapons, $30,000 in cash and several cars with hidden traps used to hide drugs and money. Heroin for sale included one brand marketed as "Obama Heroin," police said. Other jurisdictions have reported such bags.
Each bag, worth about $5, contains about 30 milligrams of the addictive drug, police said.
While most of those arrested were found with heroin, authorities also made arrests for other drugs, including oxycodone, methadone and hydrocodone.
Some of the people were involved with drug sales with an undercover officer, others were slapped with drug charges as a result of arrests for other offenses, and others were picked up on outstanding warrants.
Included in the arrests to be announced Wednesday:
Phillip Ordaya, 22, of Beechwood Place in Seaford, was arrested on a misdemeanor possession charge Jan. 15 after officers stopping him for a traffic violation found he had eight packets of heroin. He dated Ciappa before her death, authorities said. A defense attorney who handled his unrelated felony drug arrest last year did not return comment. Records show Ordaya pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree charge of conspiracy. He was released on his own recognizance, records show, and is due in court next week on the latest charge.
Arnold R. Ridgell, 68, of Duane Street in Farmingdale, who did time for a 1968 rape and sodomy conviction, was charged with a host of felony and misdemeanor drug charges in connection with four heroin and oxycodone transactions, police said. He is being held on $400,000 bail at the Nassau County jail
Posted Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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