Port Jervis man pleads guilty to operating as a major drug trafficker
A Port Jervis man pleaded guilty to operating as a major drug trafficker, the Orange County District Attorney’s office said Monday.
Richard McInturff, 31, entered the plea in Orange County Court and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 22.
Under the plea agreement, the district attorney’s office said in a statement it will recommend that McInturff serve 12 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision on the operating-as-a-major-trafficker charge.
On March 18, Port Jervis police and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Group used a search warrant at Richard McInturff’s Port Jervis home as part of an investigation into heroin sales in Port Jervis, according to the district attorney’s office.
Detectives recovered 7,892 packets of suspected heroin and a scale of the kind typically used to weigh drugs when they are being packaged for sale, the district attorney’s office said.
Indicted: Port Jervis man indicted as a major drug trafficker
Arrested: Port Jervis man accused of being a major drug trafficker
During plea proceedings, McInturff admitted he, acting as a profiteer, knowingly possessed 7,892 glassine envelopes of a powdery substance containing fentanyl/heroin with intent to sell them, and that the drugs’ value exceeded $75,000. He admitted to escaping from custody while at the Port Jervis police department on March 19, after he’d been charged with operating as a major trafficker.
“The opioid epidemic is tragic and while those who are addicted to drugs deserve our compassion and assistance, profiteers such as this defendant deserve stern and just punishment,” District Attorney David M. Hoovler said in the statement, adding the “significant seizure of narcotics, one of the largest in the history of Port Jervis, serves as a reminder of the scope of the efforts to rid our streets of these poisons.”
Michael P. McKinney covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record, the Journal News and the Poughkeepsie Journal.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Port Jervis man pleads guilty on drug trafficking charge
