Police: Drug ring used bank as stash house
Narcotics with $1.4M in street value seized from two locations
An indicted village man used a former Wells Fargo bank in the middle of this college town as one of his stash houses during a drug-trafficking operation, officials confirmed Thursday.
That and other details emerged a day after state Attorney General Letitia James announced the indictment of 12 people in the Ulster Countybased operation, which allegedly distributed cocaine and fake prescription pills packed with heroin and methamphetamine across New York state.
The 275-count indictment revolves around 39-year-old New Paltz resident Christopher Pulichene, who was charged with operating as a major trafficker, a crime which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Drugs with a street value of nearly $1.4 million were seized during raids targeting the drug ring, according to the attorney general’s office.
Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa confirmed the two stash houses raided in New Paltz were the former bank and 7 Ridge Road, a residence in the village. Police also raided stash houses in Kingston and Wappingers Falls, according to James.
The bank branch was sold in February and was not occupied when it was raided, though Wells Fargo still maintained an ATM at the location.
Sheriff Figueroa said the contraband was found in the bank building’s basement. The basement was accessible through the building’s lobby, Figeuroa said, as opposed to through the more secure interior. Figueroa could not say how the defendants accessed the bank basement.
The building was sold to a Warwick-based LLC in Feburary
The investigation involved wiretaps, according to James’ office, and the indictment is filled with quotes from phone conversations, texts and messages allegedly sent through the encrypted messaging app Signal.
The messages in the indictment refer to “oranges” — fake Adderall pills packed with methamphetamine, “blues” or “berries” — fake Oxycodone pills packed with heroin, and “greens” or “beans” — fake Xanax pills.
In the alleged multipronged conspiracy, Kingston resident Joshua Guldy supplied fake Oxycodone pills to Alton Countryman and Thekla Countryman of Kingston, who resold the pills to Pulichene and others, according to the indictment. Pulichene would then sell the pills to lower-level dealers.
Pulichene also received packages of fake Adderall pills from the West Coast and cocaine from the Gulf Coast, according to the attorney general’s office, and would resell the drugs to lower-level dealers based in Ulster, Dutchess and Saratoga counties, who would then sell the pills around New York and elsewhere. The lower-level dealers would ask to buy the pills in quantities of up to 300 at a time, according to the indictment.
Robert Curry, who was also indicted, was part of a scheme to sell cocaine unrelated to the other defendants, authorities said.
Sheriff Figueroa praised the work between members of the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team (URGENT) and the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force. He said the two agencies “instantly became a team.” URGENT investigator Joe Stock led the investigation.
The defendants face an array of felony drug sale, drug possession and weapons possession charges amounting to hundreds of years of prison time. Of the 12 people indicted, 11 were arrested as of Wednesday.
A twelfth defendant, Devyn Wolny, of New
Paltz, was not in the country and remained at large as of Friday afternoon, according to the attorney general’s office.