Drug ring broken, authorities say
Probe by attorney general, local police finds 39 weapons
Twelve people were indicted during the takedown of a large-scale drug trafficking operation centered in New Paltz after an investigation by state Attorney General Letitia James and local police.
The bust was one of the largest in Ulster County history, with 11 kilograms of cocaine and 39 firearms recovered, among other contraband.
The operation revolved around Christopher Pulchene, 39, of New Paltz, who was charged with operating as a major trafficker and other crimes for allegedly distributing cocaine and counterfeit pills throughout Ulster, Dutchess and Saratoga counties.
The pills were crafted to look like prescription Adderall and Oxycodone, but were in reality packed with methamphetamine and heroin, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
James outlined the scheme during a news conference announcing the indictments Wednesday. Pulchene would allegedly purchase the fake Oxycodone pills from Kingston resident Alton Countryman, and the fake Adderall pills from a source on the West Coast. He would then sell them to four other defendants named in the indictment.
Pulchene had the cocaine trucked in from the Gulf Coast, according to Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa, whose office was involved in the investigation.
The alleged trafficker stored the drugs at his residence in New Paltz and stash houses in New Paltz, Kingston and Wappingers Falls, according to James.
James said the nature of the drugs seized was especially disturbing.
“What makes this illegal pill operation that much more dangerous and disturbing is the fact that the people who were buying these drugs — they did not know they ... were ingesting heroin and methamphetamine,” she said. There have not been any overdoses attributed to the drug ring, she added.
Police seized 15,000 fake Adderall pills and 750 fake Oxycodone pills. Though more rotund than prescription Oxycodone or Adderall,
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the fake pills are otherwise indistinguishable from real pills, right down to the markings. Police also seized 5,000 artificial Xanax pills, which, according to James, were bunk, containing no psychoactives whatsoever.
The 39 firearms seized allegedly included at least three assault rifles and at least one ghost gun.
Also arrested during the bust was Robert Curry, who allegedly distributed cocaine in the city of Kingston, though his alleged crimes were discovered during the investigation and were not directly related to the other defendants.
Figueroa said the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team began investigating the drug ring in the summer of 2021, but the defendants had been “on the scene for a while.”
Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, who is running to replace U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado in a special election this August, reserved equal vitriol for both the drugs and guns seized in the community.
Law enforcement made “our community safer at a time that we all know, across all regions, across all political parties ... that safety is increasingly the No. 1 concern for people, and this intersection of guns and gangs and drugs is 90plus percent of the problem in our community,” he said.
Sixty-four people died of overdoses in Ulster County in 2020, the last available year of data, or more than one out of every 300 county residents.
Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, who is running against Ryan for Delgado’s seat — questioned during the news conference whether calling the opioid epidemic a public health crisis was sufficient.
“You cannot stand here and look at this and think this is a public health crisis — this is murder,” he said. “There are thousands upon thousands of our loved ones that have fallen prey to criminals who are attacking them.”
Eleven of the 12 defendants have been arrested, while one is out of the country, according to James.