Operation “City Sweeper”, one of the largest crackdowns on illegal drug sale in New Rochelle history, continues unabated with New Rochelle Police making 7 additional arrests since a series of raids took place on the Friday before Thanksgiving. So far, 51 people have been arrested on Felony Drug Charges primarily on various counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Click to enlarge image.
Police announced 44 drug-related arrests on November 18th. The investigation that led to the arrests began in February and continued for 9 months. One additional arrest was made for selling alcohol without a license.
The operation, led by Sergeant Brian Fagan of the New Rochelle Police Special Investigations Unit, has been highly successful thanks to the effort of the department and with cooperation from the While Plains Police Department, Westchester County Police Department, Westchester County District Attorney Office and the Westchester County DEA Task Force.
The New Rochelle Police Department has issued the following statement describing the operation:
Early this morning, search and arrest teams from the New Rochelle Police Department, assisted by investigators from the Westchester County Police Department and the Westchester County DEA Task Force, concluded a month’s long investigation into drug trafficking in the City of New Rochelle with the arrest of a large number of individuals involved in this drug trafficking activity.
Currently, 44 individuals are in custody on charges ranging from Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance 7th (A/Misd) to Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance 2nd (A/Felony). The operation is continuing and several more arrests are expected.
Starting in February 2011, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) began several undercover cases throughout the City of New Rochelle in conjunction with the Westchester County Department of Public Safety Narcotics Unit. The investigations focused on street sales and mid-level dealings which were starting to proliferate, particularly in the central part of the City.
As a result, a total of 9 individuals have already been arrested and charged with felony sales before the commencement of this operation. Sealed indictments or local felony warrants have been obtained for an additional 51 individuals. During the investigation, undercover officers purchased over (200) bags of crack cocaine, (350) pills of oxycontin, quarter ounce of heroin and (5) grams of powder cocaine during the operation.
“The success of this operation is indicated not only by the large number of arrests, but also by the excellent cooperation of our law enforcement partners, including the Westchester County District Attorney Office and the Westchester County DEA Task Force,” said Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll. “These efforts will certainly impact the Quality of Life in those neighborhoods.”
Talk of the Sound readers will be certain to recognize one face among the many of those arrested in Operation City Sweeper.
Edward Conklin.
Talk of the Sound first introduced him to our readers in 2010.
Meet the Face of Downtown New Rochelle: Aggressive Panhandlers Plague Business District
In October of that year, Talk of the Sound noted:
NRPD has got to take back control of our streets and the City and BID need to reverse policies that punish people for shopping or dining in downtown while rewarding beggars, thieves and scavengers.
And now they did. Hats off to the men in blue for a job well done.
Conklin has been a plague on New Rochelle — circling around the downtown area non-stop, throughout the day, hitting up everyone in downtown for money — loitering outside stores, watching people get out of their cars and then accosting them with demands for money, lingering near ATM machines and otherwise making a nuisance of himself. He has been arrested for being found in possession of stolen goods, photographed while urinating in public and, now we learn, dealing drugs throughout the downtown area.
Happily, Conklin is now in the Westchester County Jail awaiting trial on 4 counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance (3rd) and criminal possession of a controlled substance (3rd) which should mean we will not be seeing Mr. Conklin around New Rochelle for some time.
To all those people who kept giving this guy money, maybe you will learn a lesson from this (probably not) but Please Don’t Feed the Panhandlers. In doing so, you are attracting a criminal element to the downtown area that we do not need.
Johnny Perry–first column,
Johnny Perry–first column, fourth down. AKA, Noam Bramson in the morning.
Targets
I guess this is the Target’s they were talking about years ago, but did they have to close the New Roc Ice Rink?
RE: Good work NR Police !
This is certainly a GOOD start. BUT, as we all know, these 51 are just the tip of the iceberg. Nevertheless, we must celebrate the fact that finally something is being done. Keep up the GOOD work !
Operation city sweeper
To bad the BOE didn’t know about this police operation. They could have saved money on the finger printing, and I am sure they could of had the pick
of the crop filling those nine emergency BOE positions. The expense
could have been shared . Just trying to think of ways to save money.
are you sure?
Are you sure none of the 61 are BoE employees?
Stay tuned…
Why dont the police focus on
Why dont the police focus on the security staff at all of the NR. Schools. Then there would be NO security staff…well almost no security staff at all!!
And all are well qualified to
And all are well qualified to work at city hall
They look like a perfectly
They look like a perfectly normal bunch to me. No wonder no one suspected them.
Don’t judge a book….
Just goes to show you. Never judge a book by its cover. Looking at these photos, you’d never suspect these fine looking human beings to be criminals. We just never know the secret lives of our fellow citizens.
Which pictures, the ones at
Which pictures, the ones at the bottom that are blacked out?
The ones at the top are fitting right in with the the sterotypes.
Do we know the addresses? I bet a bunch live in the PJs.
Why these guys and gals are
Why these guys and gals are the average New Rochelle Citizen. Seeing this group I am really having a hard time understanding why Nordstoms is not moving into Downtown New Rochelle. I think the BID should reprint these photo’s in a come to New Rochelle and shop brochure. We could have Valet parking for the North Enders who will flock on down to meet all of these quality Citizens. Maybe Noam should stock up on a large quantity of Keys to the City as this group is right in line.