THREE-MONTH UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION RESULTS IN DRUG CHARGES AGAINST FOUR INDIVIDUALS

Defendants accused of distributing cocaine, crack cocaine in Clarkstown, Orangetown

DA’S PRESS RELEASE

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas P. Zugibe this week announced that four individuals have been arrested on drug charges following a three-month investigation in the Village of Nyack.

The investigation, which was conducted jointly by the Rockland County Drug Task Force, the Town of Orangetown Police Department and the Town of Clarkstown Police Department’s Street Crime Unit, commenced in October following numerous complaints from local residents of drug sales in the vicinity of 250 Fifth Avenue in the Village of Nyack.

Over the course of the investigation, which included extensive physical surveillance and undercover police officers posing as drug buyers, the four individuals were charged with the sale and possession of narcotics – including powdered cocaine and crack cocaine – on dozens of occasions.

District Attorney Zugibe said, “Residents in Nyack are fed up with having their lives negatively defined by the threat of illegal drug sales and associated violence. This takedown will bring a measure of relief to the good people of this neighborhood who seek safety and peace for their families. This probe is another example of prosecutors and police working together with concerned citizens to reduce drug dealing that, too often, plagues our entire community.”

According to the charges, the illegal narcotics were being moved through apartment 2B at 250 Fifth Avenue in Nyack, the home of Michael Jackson, age 35, and Monique Felix, age 34. Through extensive surveillance, it was revealed that the source of the powder and crack cocaine being trafficked into Nyack was Wilson Guillen, age 30, of 2032 East 17th Street, Bronx, New York.

Investigators identified Jackson as a significant drug dealer to additional drug runners and drug users in the Village of Nyack, the Town of Orangetown and the Town of Clarkstown, including open-air drug selling in the Village of Nyack.

The defendants are variously charged with the crimes of second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a Class “A-II” felony, punishable by up to 17 years in state prison; third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a Class “B” felony, punishable by up to nine years in state prison; endangering the welfare of a child and resisting arrest, Class “A” Misdemeanors, each punishable by up to one year in jail.

In addition to the arrests, court-authorized search warrants were executed at two locations. Among the items seized were more than four ounces of crack cocaine and powder cocaine, drug paraphernalia, digital scales, and U.S. currency.

The four defendants were arraigned this week in the Village of Nyack Justice Court before the Honorable Judge Robert Knoebel. Each was remanded on $50,000 bail with a preliminary hearing scheduled for January 18, 2013.

  drug charges, ndangering the welfare of a child, possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, Village of Nyack Justice Court