Anthony Alexander convicted of selling pills with fentanyl at Babylon train station, Suffolk DA says

A Deer Park man faces up to 30 years in prison after being convicted of selling pills containing fentanyl to an undercover police officer in January 2022, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said.

Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney announced that Anthony Alexander, 57, was convicted Thursday of three counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and two counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance in a trial before County Court Judge  Steven A. Pilewski.

Alexander was remanded following the verdict and faces sentencing on May 3.

The district attorney's office said an investigator from the office's Heroin Task Force arranged to purchase oxycodone pills from Alexander on Jan. 13, 2022, and again on Jan. 18, 2022, and said those sales took place at the Babylon train station. Both times, the district attorney's office said, the pills sold to the investigator were not oxycodone but fentanyl.

Alexander was arrested at the train station on Jan. 20 — and the district attorney's office said at that time he was in possession of oxycodone, alprazolam and suboxone pills, as well as metal knuckles.

The attorney for Alexander did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

"This defendant showed an absolute disregard for public safety by brazenly using the Babylon train station as his marketplace to sell highly addictive and dangerous opioids, as found by the jury," Tierney said in a statement. "These pills were particularly dangerous because the defendant was selling them without disclosing that they contained fentanyl. Thanks to our Heroin Task Force this dangerous drug purveyor's illegal entrepreneurship venture was shut down and now he's going to prison."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”