Albany County District Attorney David Soares announced on Monday the arrest of two alleged Capital Region drug traffickers as part of a year-long investigation. Soares says 37-year-old Darrell B. Chapman of Rensselaer and and 20-year-old Lacee Sousis of Troy were apprehended on the morning of October 18 as they were traveling north on Interstate 87 through the town of Coeymans.
The New York State Police narcotics enforcement team received a tip that Chapman would be traveling to New York City to pick up a large quantity of drugs.
Police found 280 grams of heroin in the vehicle. Later, at Chapman’s residence, they found 100 grams of cocaine, scales, a money counter, four handguns, and two assault rifles.
D.A. Soares says local law enforcement agencies worked together on the case.
“What’s happened here is a culmination of tremendous work by a variety of different agencies coming together," he said. "And quite honestly, when you have what you’re seeing here in photos, we believe that we’ve gotten one of the area’s major traffickers and we look forward to establishing that fact in court.”
According to Soares and State Police Lieutenant Christopher Gilroy, the investigation into Chapman began a year ago as a disability fraud case. Chapman is also the owner of a clothing and jewelry store on North Pearl Street in Albany. The business and other accounts were seized by police after the arrest.
“Our goal with each seizure and arrest is to disrupt the supply chain and get drugs out of our neighborhoods," Gilroy said. "Some of these cases take months of work, collaboration and patience to develop the evidence to put these dealers behind bars, and we are committed to continuing these efforts.”
Soares says getting the drugs and weapons off the street will save lives.
“Given what we now know about the public health crisis with fentanyl and heroin, when you’re now announcing a case like this, and the culmination of an investigation. The people who are behind me and the people who were intimately involved and cannot be here, they can honestly say that they’ve saved lives," Soares said.
Soares added that the arrests demonstrate the impact of the drug pipeline from New York City to upstate.
“The defendants that are apprehended in Albany are debriefed, during the prosecution they are debriefed. Any information they provide, we then turn over to Bridget Brennan, the Special Narcotics prosecutor in New York City. They run that information and process it through all of their leads, and in their ongoing investigation. It has led to some very fruitful prosecutions going in both directions.”
Chapman and Sousis were both charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance and were being held in Albany County jail without bail. Further charges are pending as the investigation continues.
