Are we winning the fentanyl war?

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with us today is the District Attorney of Suffolk County, Raymond Tierney, and he has done one great job, I mean since he’s been there. Well, the eight attorney give us an update. You’ve had, Giglio Beach. You had so many situations in Suffolk County, you tell.

0:22 Speaker 2 Us, so, I mean, I think the most recent thing is this week. I believe Thursday of this week, we took down five separate criminal conspiracies to distribute drugs and traffic guns in Suffolk County. The conspiracies extended from Philadelphia into New York City and then out to mon Talk and until we took about eighteen handguns, over a half

0:49 million dollars in cash, and a whole bunch of fentanyl, xylazine, oxy coton and crack cocaine, heroin, and crystal meth. So it was quite the extensive investigation about We took about thirty nine defendants. We charged thirty nine defendants, so it was and we utilize our federal, state and local partners thousands of hours of investigation, so it was really a

1:21 comprehensive and effective investigation.

1:23 Speaker 1 Now, Suffolk County is one of the biggest counties in the country, isn’t it is?

1:30 Speaker 2 It is? I believe geographically, with everything included, it’s probably the second largest geographic county in New York State, and it’s one of the biggest. I think. I think my office is about the seventeenth or eighteenth biggest district attorney’s office in the country. I think it’s the third or fourth biggest in New York State.

1:53 Speaker 1 Understood now, under President Trump, you had wiped out all the games and everything is topsy turvy. I mean it was great. Is there are the gangs back of what’s going on with that?

2:07 Speaker 2 Well, I see. I think what we’re seeing is we do a really good job with with violent crime in Suffolk County. Uh. The issues we have is we’re seeing a lot of retail theft and burglary and car theft rings coming from outside of the county. A lot of these individuals are from the migrant community and they’re preying

2:30 upon our Suffolk County residence. So it’s something that we constantly have to battle and again we need to work with our state, local, and federal partners because in a world of dwindling resources and increased crime, that’s really the only thing you can do.

2:46 Speaker 1 Have you seen any improvement because you’re still responsible to New York State any improvement. But what the state is allowing you to do to keep crime under.

2:55 Speaker 2 Control, well not really. In fact, you know, we talk about xylazines is trank and it enhances the effects of fentanyl. In New York State, xylazine is still not illegal to possess. So we’re not getting a lot of help from the state, but we cannot you know, we cannot use as an excuse.

3:16 And in Suffolk County, we’re actually getting safer in Suffolk County, but that’s in a large part to the great work of our law enforcement partners.

3:24 Speaker 1 Understood, Any updates on Giglio Beach.

3:29 Speaker 2 So you know, we recently amended or superseded the indictment. Now we’re charging defendant with six murders. These murders occurred between nineteen ninety three and two thousand and ten, so you know, it’s a sprawling indictment. We have a lot of evidence, hair evidence, DNA evidence, own evidence, so we’re just we’re gathering that evidence together and we’re preparing to

3:56 try the case.

3:58 Speaker 1 Understood, What else would you like to tell people about what’s going on? I mean, you’ve got a lot of New Yorkers that come there every weekend every summer. Uh you tell us.

4:10 Speaker 2 Well, I mean, I think with regard to our our seasonal New Yorkers. We took down a drug conspiracy case in in Montalk. There were two defendants that were distributing UH cocaine to seasonal residents in Montalk at three times the the street value of the cocaine UH. And you know, we were able to take them down. They had a

4:35 number of weapons, they had money, uh, and they were they were taking the the UH cocaine from the city and and transporting it out in luxury vehicles to Montalk and selling it out Montalk. And the only thing I would say to people who are flirting with the idea of purchasing illegal drugs on our streets is odds are

4:58 it’s going to contain fent and if you take fentanyl, uh, there is a high likelihood that you will overdose and die.

5:06 Speaker 1 Wow. Wow, Well right, Henny, thank you so much for the job you do. UH, and have a great labor Day weekend, and UH we’ll look to We’ll look forward to catching up again real soon.

5:21 Speaker 2 Thank you, John. Thanks for having me. I enjoyed it. Thank you.