Bellmorites arrested in drug sting

Twenty-two people, including two Bellmore men and one Bellmore woman, were arrested last Tuesday and early Wednesday morning and charged in connection with a nationwide quaalude trafficking and distribution ring that went from Baldwin to Brooklyn to California.

Barry Goldring, 57, Theresa Goldring, 50, and Bruce Siegman, 53, all of Bellmore, were arrested in the massive takedown that resulted from a three-year investigation into quaalude trafficking. Also arrested were Ana Sanchez, 37, of Baldwin, wife of alleged drug-trafficking ringleader Dennis Fairley, 65, of Manhattan, and Edward Rubin, 58, of Oceanside.

Quaaludes, or methaqualones, are sedative-hypnotic drugs that were popular in the 1960s and '70s.

The investigation began in November 2007 in Nassau County when local police were tipped off while arresting a man in an unrelated matter. Eventually the investigation grew to include members of the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, Nassau County Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Adminstration's Financial Investigation Team and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Investigators allege that Fairely, a laboratory owner and chemist, used two chemical testing labs he owned in Brooklyn and Emeryville, Calif., to manufacture hundreds of thousands of quaaludes each year, which were sold on the street for an average of $35 a pill, according the Nassau County District Attorney's Office.

"This case serves as a model of what law enforcement agencies can do together," Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said, "and as a warning to those who manufacture and sell illegal drugs. If you think you are untouchable and no one is watching, think again. You are wrong."

The Goldrings, Seigman, Sanchez and Rubin were charged with one count of conspiring to distribute methaqualone and face up to 20 years in prison and fines of more than $1 million. Fairley was charged with two counts of the same charge.

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