17 charged in Nassau County heroin, cocaine ring case, records show
Court records show 17 people are facing criminal charges as part of an alleged cocaine and heroin ring that prosecutors said operated in Nassau County and had connections to Maryland and Syracuse.
Several of those charged in an eight-count indictment appeared in a Mineola court for arraignments Tuesday morning and entered not guilty pleas following their arrests.
The defendants face a variety of charges. These include conspiracy, criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal sale of a controlled substance, and criminal facilitation, court records show. The indictment alleges a drug conspiracy was in operation from May 2016 to September 2017.
Among the defendants is Lyonel Beaubrun, 41, who is charged with such crimes as operating locally as a major trafficker of cocaine and heroin. Nassau County Supervising Judge Christopher Quinn remanded him to the county jail without bail.
Prosecutor Edward Friedenthal, chief of the Nassau district attorney’s Special Operations, Narcotics and Gangs Bureau, told Quinn in court that the investigation involved extensive electronic eavesdropping.
Court records show two of the defendants are accused of providing drugs to a customer in Maryland in August. They also show police seized more than $44,000 from those defendants around the same time.
The records also suggest the ring dealt in large quantities of narcotics, with one wiretapped conversation showing that one of the defendants was looking to get four kilograms of heroin.
They also show some customers weren’t pleased by the ring’s products, with wiretaps allegedly recording conversations about how some tried to get their money back after complaining about poor drug quality.
Some of the defendants allegedly talked to each other about not having additive to cut the narcotics they had, and about checking a car for tracking devices.
District Attorney’s Office spokesman Brendan Brosh declined to comment on the case Tuesday, except to say that more details will be provided at a news conference planned for Wednesday.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
