The Port Jervis Police Department’s increasing involvement in the Orange County Drug Task Force has enabled the city to comprehensively target drug trafficking networks, according to police chief William Worden.
One such example is the recent charges of 36 defendants for allegedly being part of a drug trafficking operation based out of Port Jervis, New York, with tentacles reaching out to nearby communities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, he said.
The result came after the department temporarily sent a detective to work on the task force full time.
“The task force model allows agencies to share resources and costs, and we were able to take down the entire hierarchy from the top down to the street-level dealers,” Worden told The Epoch Times.
In April, Worden decided to be directly involved in the county drug task force at the suggestion of District Attorney David Hoovler.
Situated at the intersection of three states—New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—and close to a major highway, Port Jervis has long been an attractive spot for illicit narcotics trafficking, Worden said.
He assigned detective Mike Decker to the drug task force on a part-time basis.
Before that, the department worked jointly with the task force on major drug investigations, but the two entities operated in two realms, he said.
Joining the task force allows direct access to technology and resources at the district attorney’s office and other agencies, such as the New York State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, he said.
It also allows his department to share investigation costs with the district attorney’s office, such as money for undercover drug buys.
The task force also enables the city to target traffickers beyond the city limits, he said.
“You are looking at it rather than just your jurisdiction and the entire region,” Worden said. “When you think of it, these cases affect all of us—there are no borders for these cases.”
However, even with all the benefits, it was not an easy call, Worden added.
Manpower
The Port Jervis Police Department’s detective bureau had a lieutenant, a sergeant, a detective working full time on the county child abuse task force, and three case detectives, including Decker.
Having Decker assigned part time to the drug task force would mean he would have less time for cases at the police department.
That is a dilemma many police departments find themselves in, according to Hoovler.
Since he founded the county drug task force in 2015, the sheriff’s office and five police departments have contributed manpower; many others balk at the nonpaid commitment.
“They want the officer salary reimbursement for being on the task force, but that is not feasible,” Hoovler told The Epoch Times. “What I say to them is that being part of the county drug task force is investing in public safety in your community.”
As for Worden, he believes that combating drug trafficking would eventually lead to a decline in overall crime rates in the city.
Port Jervis had seen a rise in major crimes this year, including thefts, burglaries, robberies, and aggravated assaults—about 70 percent of those crimes could be attributed to drug addictions and dealings, he said.
By some internal reshuffling, Worden had other detectives take on Decker’s cases.
In July, a task force investigation led to the arrests and charges of two men from Paterson, New Jersey, for supplying narcotics to Port Jervis.
The investigation aimed to disrupt a major drug trafficking corridor between Paterson and Port Jervis.
In another task force investigation, Operation Final Blow, the depth of the case soon evolved to a point where it demanded Decker’s full attention, Worden said.
For several months, he assigned Decker to the case full time at the suggestion of Hoovler.
Again, it was not an easy decision, Worden said.
The city had a busy summer with several missing person cases, he said. One woman, 21-year-old Brittany Hendershot, was found dead in the woods of a nearby town. Another woman, Heather Callas, is still missing.
“When Mike was assigned to the task force on a full-time basis, we did feel the void of him not being [at the police department.] He is a very active and very professional investigator,” Worden said.
Targeting Top Echelon
Operation Final Blow eventually led to one of the largest takedowns in the tri-state area, with more than 200 police officers executing 17 search warrants on one day, seizing two kilograms of cocaine, 74 grams of heroin, and 165 grams of fentanyl—enough fentanyl to kill 82,500 people.
Two milligrams of fentanyl can potentially kill a person, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
It also led to charges of 36 defendants in three states for their alleged roles in a major illegal drug trafficking network—a third of the defendants are from Port Jervis. Several allegedly acted as top guys in the hierarchy.
Hoovler said he thinks the full-time involvement of Decker made a difference.
“If you are only in it part time, you are not going to get the results like we had in Port Jervis,” Hoovler said. “I told chief Worden, ‘The minute you put somebody on full time, we got results, and we got results on people that had been thumbing their noses at law enforcement for years.’”
Over seven years, the county drug task force resulted in around 500 arrests and convictions, Hoovler said.
It has also evolved from being a quick response to street-level dealings to focusing on long-term, large-scale drug trafficking, he added.
At least $1 million has been spent by the district attorney’s office for the task force on new technology, such as wiretapping, he said.
Future
Now, Decker is back on the task force on a part-time basis.
Worden wants to get Decker back onto the task force full time and hire a new detective to make up for his absence at the police department.
However, it could be difficult for the city, which already expects to see a tax increase of around 7 percent and a significant jump in sewer taxes.
“The city has been supportive of the part-time and full-time commitment in the past, but this is a trying time economically,” Worden said. “It all depends on the financial ability of the city to afford it.”
Instead of securing the money for a new detective in the city budget, Worden plans to find other funding sources, such as forfeitures, which could apply to a mid-year hiring, he said.
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Cara is an Orange County, New York-based Epoch Times reporter. She can be reached at cara.ding@epochtimes.com
