MONTICELLO – US Senator Charles Schumer was in Monticello on Friday to once again put pressure on the federal government to declare Sullivan County a High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).
He said despite having the highest per capita fatal drug overdose rate in New York, with 218 overdose incidents last year including 24 fatal, Sullivan is the only county in the Hudson Valley without the New York/New Jersey designation.
“Route 17 and other major transportation routes leading from New York City to upstate and Pennsylvania have made Sullivan County a major target for drug traffickers,” he said. “That’s why we need the HIDTA. When New York City drug dealers want to send stuff upstate, it is often Sullivan County that they use to pass it through.”
That federal designation would supply coordinated law enforcement strategies at all levels and would make more federal resources available to reduce the supply of illegal drugs, like fentanyl, in Sullivan County, the senator said.
