District Attorney David Hoovler says more than 20 law enforcement agencies, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, contributed to an eight-month undercover investigation that led to the seizure of nearly 70 firearms, $65,000 cash and more than 1.5 kilos of cocaine and fentanyl.
Hoovler, a Republican, presented the items and pictures of the defendants at a press conference in Goshen Friday morning.
“[There is] enough fentanyl here on this table to kill 190,000 residents of Orange County," says Hoovler. "The 20 people on the boards to my immediate left are nothing more than merchants of death. But they’re merchants of death from two different ways: some of them sell guns, and some of them sell drugs.”
“Operation Powder Burn” focused on a pair of interconnected gun and trafficking rings centered in Newburgh, but with connections throughout Orange County and out of state. Hoovler says many of the guns seized came to New York through what he calls the “iron pipeline,” meaning they were shipped north via FedEx from less-regulated southern states, specifically Georgia. Hoovler says some of the guns came from Pennsylvania as well.
Bryan Miller, a special agent in charge at the ATF, says several of the weapons were later linked to seven shootings in New York and Vermont.
“Together, we’re not just seizing firearms, we’re preventing shootings before they happen," says Miller.
“Let’s be clear: the guns that we’re removing are not guns that were in the hands of enthusiasts or collectors," Hoovler adds. "They’re guns that are being sold on the street by individuals involved in the drug trade. And this case started as a drug investigation and became a case about guns.”
Hoovler says a majority of the guns were seized through controlled purchases by undercover officers, who bought them under the pretense that they would be used to protect other drug dealers. Of the 20 people charged, 19 were arrested Wednesday as agencies carried out warrants in Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, the Bronx, Queens, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Hoovler says three of the individuals are pending extradition from other states, and officers are still trying to locate 52-year-old Carl Henry of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Henry is wanted on charges of conspiracy, criminal possession of a firearm, and criminal sale of a firearm.
The man accused of being at the center of both rings is 40-year-old Christopher Brown of Newburgh. Hoovler says Brown trafficked drugs and, as they later found, guns out of a non-operable restaurant called “The Kitchen” at 132 South Street in Newburgh.
“Someone asked me this morning, ‘Why take the case down now?’" Hoovler notes. "It’s simple: earlier this month, they were intercepted talking about robbing and potentially harming our undercovers. That led us to today.”
Hoovler says no officers were harmed over the course of the investigation.
Brown is charged with Criminal Sale and Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance, Criminal Sale and Criminal Possession of a Firearm, and conspiracy charges. He faces up to 30 years in prison.
Hoovler says cases like these are part of a shift by his office towards large-scale investigations. The mayors of Newburgh, Port Jervis, and Middletown were all on hand Friday to thank officers for either bringing the guns off their streets, or preventing them from getting there in the first place.
Republican Orange County Sheriff Paul Arteta had a similar message.
“Less than five percent of criminal activity are criminals that are in our cities, and they’re doing a lot of damage to our children and some of our adults, but our children are who we need to protect the most," says Arteta. "We need to keep the drugs and guns out of the hands of these children. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to prosecute children who have these weapons in their hands and are causing damage in our different communities. And without the efforts, collectively, of everybody behind me, we wouldn’t have been able to bring this case here today.”
