Weak NYC bail law allows deadly fentanyl traffickers to get away with impunity: District Attorney Ray Tierney

Some fentanyl traffickers are being released back onto the streets after their arrests, allowing them to sell more of the addictive and dangerous drug thanks to New York’s lenient bail law, chief prosecutor fights crisis claims.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to do more bail-related drug offenses to keep traffickers of the deadly synthetic opioid behind bars.

Under New York’s 2019 Criminal Justice Reforms, only Class A felonies are eligible for bail.

“We have mile-wide loopholes in New York, and drug dealers are taking advantage of them,” Tierney told The Post in a recent interview.

“Our criminal justice laws do not focus enough on the victims of crime and the safety of society.”

Tierney is also demanding that Albany pass a “dealer death” law to put fentanyl dealers in jail for a longer period of time.

The fentanyl-driven opioid crisis is acutely felt in the Big Apple, where fatal drug overdoses occur every three hours or eight times a day, according to the New York City Office of Special Attorney for Narcotics.

More than 2,800 New Yorkers died in the city from drug overdoses — the vast majority of them related to fentanyl — in the 12 months ending July 2022, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By comparison, there were 433 murders in the city last year.

Fentanyl, an opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, was found in 80% of drug overdose deaths in the city in 2021 and was the most common fatal overdose drug for the fifth consecutive year.

Most of the drug is smuggled into the US from the southern border by Mexican drug cartels, Attorney General Merrick Garland said last week.

The fentanyl scourge hit the Staten Island middle class particularly hard, with one MP backing Tierney’s bid to put accused death dealers behind bars pending trial.

“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug of our time. I would fully support legislation that would prosecute drug dealers and keep them in jail,” Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo, a Republican representing the central and eastern parts of the district, said Sunday.

Meanwhile, more than 400 people have died of fentanyl overdoses in Suffolk in 2021.

In the same year, 32 homicides were reported in Long Island County.

Tierney, in a March 3 letter to Hohul, presented a list of recommended changes to tighten bail law, including making class B drug-related felony offenses such as selling drugs or possession with intent to sell a “qualified offence” for a judge. impose bail and detention. His proposed changes must be approved by the Democratic Assembly and the Senate, which are resisting bail reform changes.

“This is important to cover the sale of dangerous drugs such as heroin and fentanyl (a synthetic opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine), which together are responsible for doubling the number of overdose deaths over the past 4 years,” he wrote.

Tierney pointed to the case of Vito Frabicio, who sold fentanyl to recovering drug addict Frank Cairo, 51, who died of an overdose in March 2022.

The trafficker was arrested in a covert operation for selling up to 1/8 ounce fentanyl and more than 1/8 ounce cocaine.

But because the charges didn’t match his bail, he was released under supervision – only to be re-arrested later for dealing fentanyl in another undercover sting.

In the end, in November, Frabizio was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of illegal sale of third-degree controlled substances.

However, state law allowed him to go free and do more damage after his initial arrest, Tierney said.

“We couldn’t ask for a pre-trial detention in the Frabicio case,” Tierney told The Post. “He actually traded fentanyl for a month or two months” while under surveillance.

Frabicio and the other traffickers of fentanyl or so-called designer drugs are too dangerous to be sent out on the street for months while their case is resolved, the district attorney said.

“We need to have a dangerous standard so that we can ask for bail for fentanyl dealers,” Tierney said.

There have been other cases where accused drug dealers have been arrested on hold because of the lenient crime law or the leniency of judges.

Manuel Pagan, 49, was arrested last November with allegedly 20,000 fentanyl “rainbow” pills in Manhattan’s trendy Chelsea neighborhood.

He was charged with first-degree possession of a controlled substance — a class A-1 felony that qualifies for bail — but Manhattan Judge James Cline released him anyway.

In July, Californians Luis Estrada and Carlos Santos, suspected of smuggling drugs from a Mexican drug cartel, were arrested with $1.2 million in crystal meth.

But the couple were released under supervision after they were charged with second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, not a drug, which does not qualify for bail.

“This is a serious problem,” New York City Narcotics Special Attorney Bridget Brennan told The Post at the time. “The failure to include methamphetamine offenses as bailable offenses was probably an oversight.”

Republican Tierney said he backs Democrat Hole’s proposal to give judges more leeway in setting bail for felony defendants.

But he said more needs to be done.

Under Hole’s proposal, New York will get rid of the 2019 requirement that judges use the “least restrictive” means of securing the return of defendants to court when it comes to defendants accused of serious crimes.

“You can count on my warmest support for this initiative,” Tierney told the governor.

Hole’s spokesperson listed a list of items the governor had budgeted for to combat the opioid scourge, but did not specifically address Tierney’s bail request.

“Gov. Hole’s executive budget includes transformative investments to make New York more accessible, more livable, and safer, and she looks forward to working with the legislature on a final budget that meets the needs of all New Yorkers,” the press said. Secretary Hazel Crampton-Hayes. Sunday.

Hochul’s office said her budget filing added fentanyl to the list of illegal drugs in the Controlled Substances Act, making it easier to prosecute.

She also proposes a new offense for selling an imitation controlled substance, including passing off lethal fentanyl as cocaine.

Hole’s $227 billion budget plan includes funding to combat the flow of fentanyl into New York. Specifically, the Governor is creating a $7 million Fentanyl Innovation Grant available to prosecutors, allowing them to target supply chains and prosecute overdose death cases.

The budget proposal also includes $18 million for crime analysis centers across the state, including $2 million to curb the flow of fentanyl into communities.

Bronx Democrats Jeffrey Dinovits and Jamaal Bailey, chair of the State Assembly and the Senate Codes Committee responsible for crime legislation, did not immediately comment on Tierney’s proposal.