NEW YORK – Thirteen people have been indicted and charged with conspiring to distribute heroin from New York City into Orange, Sullivan and Nassau counties, as well as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Three of those arrested are from Newburgh; two are from Monticello. The Newburgh residents are identified as Jerome Turnbough, 55, Devonna Barreras, also known as Creechbarreras, 22, and Eddie Cullins, 44.
The Monticello residents are Jamaul Aziz, 34 and Gilbert Maxi, 22.
The joint investigation between the State Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force and the State Police Community Narcotics Enforcement Team was dubbed “Operation Iron Horse” because much of the trafficked heroin was transported on Metro-North trains.
The kingpin in the operation, as outlined in an indictment unsealed in Orange County Court on Thursday, was Brian Bacon, also known as “The Prime Minister,” 52, of the Bronx.
The indictment alleged that Bacon sold up to a kilogram of heroin per month with assistance from his son, Tamar Dillard, and his girlfriend, Donna Marie Haggans, who were integral to the packaging and delivery of the drug to customers and resellers, as well as the handling of money.
Bacon was also allegedly assisted by Wallace Walker of the Bronx, the self-styled “quality control officer,” who distributed heroin to third parties, who would test and then rate the quality, and permit Bacon to gauge how much he could “cut” it and the price he should charge.
As alleged, Bacon regularly sent his son, Dillard, to take the Metro-North train from Harlem to deliver the drugs to Turnbough in Newburgh. Turnbough also allegedly traveled by bus between the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan and Pittsburgh, where the heroin was distributed.
Bacon also allegedly had two suppliers – an as-yet unidentified man and Raymos Bertrand, 43, of the Bronx. The main resellers allegedly supplied by Bacon were Turnbough, Roderick Copeland from Manhattan, Aziz of Monticello, and Kenneth Parris, 42, of Uniondale.
