DA: Flanders man jailed on drug, gun charges
Faustino Juarez of Flanders was arrested by detectives from the East End Drug Task Force and the Southampton Town police department's emergency services team on drug and weapons charges. Credit: SCDA
A Flanders man is being held without bail after pleading not guilty after his arrest last week on drug and weapons charges, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said in a statement Tuesday.
Faustino Juarez was arrested by detectives from the East End Drug Task Force and the Southampton Town police department's emergency services team Friday at his home on Riverside Drive. The arrest took place at 6:15 a.m., Spota said.
The bust, which also used a Suffolk Sheriff's Office K-9 unit, resulted in the seizure of 400 grams of cocaine and two handguns, one loaded, officials said.
Spota said agents also recovered a "bundle" of heroin -- and more than $20,000.
"This was a long-term investigation of a very active drug dealer in the community, a defendant with an extensive criminal history who had a loaded weapon and another handgun in his house," Spota said in his statement. He said the case is under a grand jury review.
Spota said the weapons seized included a .9-mm pistol and a loaded .32-caliber revolver. A "bundle" of heroin is 1 gram of the drug divided into 10 bags and packaged for street sale, Spota said.
Officials said that in 2002 Juarez served 10 months in county jail for attempted possession of a controlled substance. In 2004 he was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in prison for criminal possession of a controlled substance, serving his entire sentence before being released in 2008.
In 2010, Spota said Juarez was convicted of attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance -- and was then sentenced to 3 years in prison. He was paroled on April 6, 2012, and submitted to one year of parole supervision.
The multi-jurisdictional East End Drug Task Force comprises village, township, county and state law enforcement agencies and is funded by the district attorney's office.
In addition to State Police, Suffolk police and district attorney's office detectives, agencies involved include: East Hampton Town police, East Hampton Village police, Southampton Town police, Shelter Island police, Southold police, Riverhead police, the Suffolk Sheriff's Office and the Suffolk County Probation Department.