GOSHEN – A 42-year-old Otisville man pled guilty in Orange County Court to operating as a major drug trafficker.
Antonio Perez-Molina entered the plea after a jury trial had begun on Friday.
Under the plea agreement, Perez-Molina will face up to 18 years to life in prison when sentenced in March.
The charges against Perez-Molina and several other co-defendants stemmed from a long-term drug sale and possession operation, said District Attorney David Hoovler.
“This is our 14th major trafficker case in Orange County since 2016. We invest a lot of time and effort in these long-term investigations to essentially remove these major traffickers from our community because they create the greatest risk of death to the individuals in our community,” he said. “Every single one of them has resulted in a guilty plea or a conviction at trial.”
In this case, on August 18, 2021, New York and Connecticut State Police, the Connecticut State’s Attorney Office, and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office conducted an investigation dubbed “Operation Off the Brick” involving the trafficking of cocaine in Orange County and Connecticut.
Search warrants were executed at several locations in Otisville, Middletown, Blooming Grove, Kerhonkson, and in Connecticut.
Seized in those raids were over 1,100 grams of cocaine, three located handguns, one shotgun, and some $70,000 in cash.
At the plea proceedings, Perez-Molina admitted he acted as a director of a controlled substance organization that sold cocaine, and the proceeds collected or due from the sales had a total aggregate value of $75,000 or more.
