PORT JERVIS – A concerted effort to go after illicit drug dealers in the City of Port Jervis has resulted in a 68 percent increase in arrests and prosecutions for controlled substances in 2014.
City Police and Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler’s Office have gone after the drug trade in a unified effort with assistance from the sheriff’s office and Hoovler said he has his staff working alongside the police from the get-go in each case.
“It is not like it used to be where they would call us after an arrest,” Hoovler said. “We have established a relationship and protocol for the drug cases that we are handling so that we have assistant district attorneys onboard with them from the beginning, almost as if they are embedded in Port Jervis in handling these cases.”
Port Jervis Police credit some of the rise in arrests on increased community
involvement in policing strategies. Alert residents have come forward
with tips and leads concerning offenders.
Police Chief William Worden said his department executed 37 court-ordered search warrants last year, compared with 28 in 2013. Of those 37, 22 were for narcotics. In 2014, the police department had undercover police officers or informants purchase narcotics from drug dealer targets in “control buys” supervised by police 152 times, compared to 61 in 2013.
Seizures of Oxycodone increased by 91 percent in 2014 over the year before. Arrests for felony drug arrests totaled 140 compared with 96 in 2013. Crack cocaine seizures increased by 100 percent last year, compared to 2013 and heroin seizures were up by 10 percent.
DA Hoovler said they recovered five loaded firearms from drug dealers, three of which were reported stolen.
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