MONTICELLO – A Fallsburg man was convicted in Sullivan County Court on Monday on a number of drug charges.
A jury found Jason Perulli, 42, guilty of four counts of drug possession, criminally using drug paraphernalia and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
The jury rejected Perulli’s contention that it was his wife, who is now dead, and not him, who possessed the drugs at the time of his arrest.
The jury convicted Perulli for his possession of over eight ounces of cocaine and more than one-half ounce of heroin, packaged in more than 1,080 individual packets on October 25, 2018 in a residence at 80 Zimmerman Road in the Town of Fallsburg. Police also seized close to $8,000 in cash, scales used for drug distribution, and driving while his license was suspended or revoked.
When sentenced in December, Perulli faces up to 30 years in state prison. He has previously been convicted of several felonies, including drug possession in 2010 for which he was sentenced to 8 ½ years in prison and was on parole at the time of the latest offenses.
“The possession of this large quantity of narcotics posed a very real threat to the safety of the Sullivan County community and they were destined for distribution on our streets; the jury saw through this defendant’s hollow argument,” said District Attorney James Farrell. “This arrest and the seizure of such a large cache of dangerous narcotics were the result of good and vigilant police work and the jury’s verdict reflects that.”
