New York’s attorney general has announced the takedown of a 12-person Hudson Valley narcotics rings. The investigation with state police led to a 110-count indictment charging the individuals with conspiring to sell thousands of prescription pills.
State Attorney General Barbara Underwood says the narcotics trafficking ring operated in Dutchess, Orange and Ulster Counties, with the alleged members selling thousands of prescription pills including oxycodone, amphetamine, diazepam, clonazepam and buprenorphine to dozens of customers on a daily basis. She says the takedown – dubbed “Operation Candy Crush” because of the defendants’ reference to prescription pills as “candy” and “skittles” – marks the latest in the attorney general’s SURGE, or Suburban and Upstate Response to the Growing Epidemic, Initiative to root out New York’s heroin, opioid and narcotics trafficking networks. The majority of defendants are from Poughkeepsie and Newburgh.
