Man had drugs, forged credit cards, fake IDs, Nassau police say

A traffic stop Wednesday night in Hicksville resulted in the arrest of a Pennsylvania man for possession of drugs, forged credit cards and identifications, a blank Social Security card and ID fabricating devices, Nassau County police said.

Police said COPE (Community Oriented Police Enforcement) officers, working as part of Operation Natalie, the Nassau County's war on opioids, stopped a black Hyundai Sonata as it traveled south on South Oyster Bay Road just after 10 p.m. COPE and police said officers had "observed" the driver commit "multiple vehicle and traffic law infractions" before making the stop, police said in a statement.

But police said the driver, identified as Frank Randolph, 33, of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, exited the Hyundai and "began to walk away from the officers while making furtive movements toward his front right pants pocket."

Police said the officers "observed a black knife" in Randolph's pocket and, after a brief struggle, arrested him.

An investigation involving Major Case Bureau detectives, as well as the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, the Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center and even the Secret Service, resulted in the recovery of a laundry list of items described by police as: equipment used to manufacture and fabricate fraudulent documents; equipment used to fabricate identifications and credit cards; re-encoded forged credit cards; 109 blank credit card templates; 22 blank chip-style credit cards; 3 credit card reading devices; a forged Rhode Island driver's license; 54 governmental ID holograms from "various states"; a blank Social Security card; the personal account information of "an unknown victim"; drug paraphernalia; 46 glassine envelopes containing what police "believe to be heroin"; and, "a substance believed to be methamphetamine."

Randolph was charged with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, six counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, four counts of criminal possession of forgery devices, criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument, false impersonation, second-degree obstructing governmental administration and multiple traffic infractions.

He was scheduled for arraignment Thursday in Mineola.

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.”