The arrests of 10 suspected drug runners Friday, Jan. 5, was a success for federal, state and local authorities, but at least one official said it will have little impact in the long run on the trade itself, especially as drug distribution hubs increasingly call suburbia home.
Members of the Drug Enforcement Agency and state and local agencies that make up the state police Community Narcotics Enforcement Team, ended a six-month investigation into a cocaine distribution ring with several arrests in New York City, Albany, Watervliet and at a suburban Latham rental property.
The raids landed 10 people in police custody who now face federal conspiracy to distribute crack and cocaine charges.
Authorities are calling the drug operation one of the more sophisticated ones they have taken down.
In terms of drugs seized; it’s significant. What makes it more significant is that we were able to connect the drugs to an organization, said Eric Galerneau, a prosecutor with the Albany County District Attorney’s Street Crime Unit.
On Jan. 5, law enforcement officials swarmed suspects at the Latham home, and made traffic stops in Watervliet, and another on Interstate 90. In that stop, officers, acting on information gathered through wiretaps, confiscated more than a kilogram of cocaine.
Simultaneously, officials raided the Bronx apartment of suspected ringleader Juan P. Montalvo, 24, also known as `China.`
Galerneau said the organization was a sophisticated operation that resembled a legitimate corporation. They awarded cash bonuses for good behavior; such as avoiding police contact and not speeding when transporting the drugs, and withheld compensation when performance was less than satisfactory.
They operated following a structured chain of command with managers and runners, all of whom avoided contact with the street-level sellers they are suspected of supplying. The distribution hub was a Utica Avenue house in Latham.
From the 6 Utica Ave. property, members of the ring allegedly solicited orders over the phone that were then filled by deliveries to various locations throughout the region. Officials said they believe the sales were directed at sellers in the city of Albany.
From information gathered during surveillance, officials estimated the operation grossed $30,000 in December 2006 by moving a kilogram of cocaine over a four-day span.
Any activity in or about the Latham staging area was apparently low-key with most neighbors saying they had no idea a lucrative drug operation was based just down the street.
`I never saw a car in the driveway or a light on in that place,` said a Utica Avenue resident, who lives at the southern end of Utica Avenue, or `new` Utica Avenue as it is often referred to, he added.
`It is kind of surprising (that the operation was there), but nothing shocks me anymore,` he said, adding that the property that housed the alleged drug activity sat near the entrance of Utica Avenue in the shadows of the Latham Water District’s two water tanks, and was known as `the shack.`
Most of the neighborhood is made up of newer homes and many first-time homeowners who have children enrolled in the North Colonie School District’s grade schools.
The fact that Montalvo and his counterparts were smart enough not to avoid bringing attention to themselves shows how hard it is these days to get a jump on drug suppliers, said Colonie Police Chief Steven Heider, who headed the department’s narcotics team in 1982 at the apex of the cocaine craze in the United States.
Colonie police were aware of the Latham investigation, but none of their officers assisted in the arrests.
Police usually rely on informants or neighbors who notice unusual activity to take down drug rings, Heider said, but those elements were missing in Montalvo’s sophisticated operation.
How law officials were able to track down and arrest those involved in the Latham operation is a feat in itself, Heider said, and one that should be commended.
However, the fact that the organization, as careful as it was, was able to ferry in tens of thousands of dollars in cocaine and crack — like it did and where it did — chances are there are others doing it in the safety of the suburban outskirts of Albany, said Heider.
`This isn’t the first time, and it wont be the last time. Sometimes the drug fight in suburbia is tougher than it is in the inner city,` said Heider.
Typically Colonie’s hotels have been a hotbed of drug activity, and busts are a weekly occurrence. Rarely do the operations reach the scale of the one had tucked away in a Latham suburb. But more and more business-savvy dealers like Montalvo’s, who ferried drugs from New York City to the Albany area, are setting up shop in the safety of suburbia.
They don’t deal with street-level people, they are out of reach of the violence associated with competitors in the cities, and they bring less attention to themselves, said Heider.
At the beginning of the investigation six months ago, officials did not yet know they were dealing with an organized unit, said Galerneau. It wasn’t until investigators began to notice commonalities among low-level drug transaction arrests in the area that they began putting the pieces together.
He wouldn’t say what led investigators to the Latham home, but once the home was identified, it was placed under surveillance and officials watched the drug ring’s weekly operations unfold.
`The investigation encompassed more law enforcement agencies as it progressed,` said Galerneau.
The collaboration among several state and federal agencies was key in the investigation and arrests.
The matter of trying the 10 suspects in court has been left to federal prosecutors. So far all 10 have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Calls to the United States Attorneys Office regarding the case have not been returned.
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