Crime

Valley Stream man among 31 people charged in massive drug bust

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Thirty-one people, including a Valley Stream man, were indicted on July 14 in one of the largest drug busts in Nassau County’s history, according to District Attorney Madeline Singas.

“None of these people arrested today are what we consider low-level drug dealers, nor are they dealing drugs to feed their own habits,” Singas said. “They are all profiteers and sit atop their own narcotics pyramid, with their own geographic areas.”

Brandon Tirado, 24, of Ethel Street in Valley Stream, was among those arrested. Additional details were not immediately available because not all arrestees had been arraigned.

Officials said they had arrested five major suppliers who sold between $2 million and $3 million worth of cocaine and heroin over the last four months. Those five suspects were charged with felonies that carry sentences of 15 years to life in prison.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in conjunction with its Long Island gang task force, began issuing search warrants and making arrests at 6 a.m. on July 14 across Nassau and Suffolk counties, after a nine-month investigation involving 12 different agencies. Singas said that the investigation was ongoing, and that more arrests and charges were expected.

The task force began looking into local heroin distributors, Singas said, starting with brothers Donnel Hoyes, 35, and Terrence Hoyes, 29, both of Hempstead. She said that Terrence dealt the drugs out of his Hempstead apartment on Gladys Avenue, which he shared with his girlfriend and their five children.

“My office became involved in January, and surveillance of the drug ring increased as more information was gathered,” Singas said. “Using electronic surveillance, street-level surveillance, targeted vehicle stops, controlled purchases and other means, we discovered a large quantity of narcotics being distributed by a network of drug dealers here on Long Island.”

The investigation, she explained, pivoted to try to determine who was supplying the Hoyes brothers with the narcotics, and discovered that David Ramis, 38, of Uniondale, was involved in supplying a large chain of some 50 dealers across New York state. “What we have here are several independent drug operations that have one common thread,” Singas said. “Their main supplier is David Ramis.”

The defendants range in age from 21 to 46, and live in Amityville, Central Islip, Elmont, Farmingdale, Glen Cove, Hempstead, Islandia, Middle Island, Shirley, Smithtown, Uniondale, Valley Stream, Westbury and West Hempstead. Two defendants are being transported to Nassau County from Albany to be arraigned.

The dealers set up distribution operations throughout Long Island and upstate New York, using various methods, according to the D.A.’s office.

Singas said that investigators believe that Shamiek Porter, 24, served as a “mobile narcotics delivery service,” using a BMW and a rented Ford Focus. Evidence recovered at one of Porter’s Nassau County residences included packaging material, cutting agents and other indicators of a heroin mill. Ammunition, multiple cell phones and Bloods gang paraphernalia were also discovered at his home, Singas said, adding that although several of the defendants have gang affiliations, investigators do not believe it was a gang operation.

According to officials, evidence suggests that Ramis also conducted deliveries in a 2014 Honda Accord, making sales out of his home and in commercial parking lots across Nassau County.

Singas said that police had confiscated $75,000 in cash from the alleged dealers on July 14, as well as three assault rifles, three handguns, over a kilogram of cocaine, several hundred grams of heroin and several cars — at least one with a trap door for guns and narcotics.

Officials referred to the drug bust as Operation Gram Slam, and said that it would make a significant dent in the heroin crisis on Long Island.

“This started with a simple car stop …,” said Rockville Centre Police Commissioner Charles Gennario. “It was a car stop by a Rockville Centre police officer, and it led to a street-level [marijuana] arrest.” Officials said they used information from a total of 12 car stops to uncover the drug network.

“We will not sit idly by and allow drug dealers to operate in our towns without severere consequences,” Singas said.