Orange County Drug, Gun, and Jewelry Bust Captures Alleged Middletown Ring

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler announced on May 1 that an investigation into a narcotics trafficking ring operating in the city of Middletown ended with charges against 17 individuals after law enforcement executed 13 search warrants.

The nine-month investigation, named Operation Slow Motion, ended on April 29 with the seizure of $258,625 in cash, 15 kilograms of cocaine, 16 illegal firearms and a sawed-off shotgun, 1 kilogram of fentanyl, about 200 grams of liquid Phencyclidine, several hundred ecstasy pills, four vehicles, and $250,000 in jewelry. Police apprehended 15 of the 17 individuals charged and are looking for the other two.

“The fentanyl, just under 1 kilogram, has the potential to kill nearly 400,000 people, according to the [Drug Enforcement Administration] principle that approximately 2 milligrams has the potential of killing someone,” Hoovler said at the news conference. “Think of that 400,000 people, that’s nearly the population of the county.”

The operation was named Slow Motion because the defendants were calculated, deliberate, and cautious, Hoovler stated. The narcotics ring was connected through Middletown and other parts of Orange County, as drugs were trafficked in from New York City and New Jersey. Pedro Pabon of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, 51; Robert Howard of Edgewater, New Jersey, 58; and Nikye Bee of New York City, 31, were the alleged main suppliers.

Of the 15 arrested individuals, 10 were from the Middletown area. Hoovler said the main distributor within the county was allegedly Zachary Lewis from the hamlet of Central Valley in the Woodbury area.

Hoovler said that 18 law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation, and focused on the contributions of the Middletown Police Department. He said that the Middletown police brought the case in first, enhanced it, and brought it to the district attorney’s office.

Middletown Police Chief John Ewanciw said the Middletown Narcotics Unit found Lewis allegedly supplying drugs about nine months ago to numerous people in the area. The investigation found that Lewis was part of a larger network that extended beyond the city, and so the Middletown police contacted various Orange County agencies to expand the investigation.

Ewanciw said the Middletown police invested more than 6,500 personnel-hours into the investigation, and that Middletown is fortunate to have good relations with law enforcement partners at the local, state, and federal levels. In total, 18 agencies participated in the operation, ranging from the Port Jervis Police Department to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Ewanciw also said that several of the individuals under investigation were parolees with extensive criminal histories, including homicide. He said he believes that post-release supervision programs need to be revamped, as they are not preventing offenders from participating again in high-level criminal activity.

“These programs need to be fully funded, fully staffed, if we expect them to be effective,” he said. “New alternatives need to be established and implemented, which can provide these individuals with a path away from the criminal activities that led them to prison in the first place.”