Melvin
GOSHEN – A Newburgh man, who pled guilty to being the director
of a drug trafficking organization that sold heroin in the City of Newburgh,
was sentenced in Orange County Court to 13 years in state prison followed
by five years of post-release supervision.
Judge Craig Stephen Brown sentenced Earl Melvin, also known as “Bugs,”
on Thursday. He was also ordered to pay over $17,000 in restitution and
forfeiture as part of the sentence.
This was the first case since District Attorney David Hoovler took office
that a defendant was charged with the crime of operating as a major trafficker.
During a one-year period from June 2015 to this past June, Melvin’s
organization distributed heroin in Newburgh with the proceeds of at least
$75,000.
On June 7, following a 10-month investigation, authorities made over 20
arrests in “Operation Punch-Out” and seized over 56 grams
of unpackaged heroin, 1,000 individual packages of heroin, 28 grams of
cocaine, over $8,000 in cash, scales, packaging material, cutting agents
and a loaded .45 caliber pistol.
The street value of the narcotics was over $18,000.
“The heroin epidemic continues to cost the lives of far too many
members of our community all through Orange County,” Hoovler said.
“It is unconscionable that large scale dealers, like this defendant,
profit from the misery and death that their drugs cause.”
