Authorities arrested a New York City police officer Monday in connection with a scheme to sell oxycodone in Vermont, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.
A federal grand jury handed down a 15-count indictment July 7, accusing Andre Clarke and two others of a scheme to ship oxycodone from New York to Vermont.
The trio is accused of running the operation involving the opiate-based painkiller for three years, from 2011 to June 2014.
Clarke, who lived in the Bronx and Long Island during that time, could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The 36-year-old police officer joined the NYPD in 2002.
Prosecutors say that Clarke supplied the painkiller to Michael Foreste, of Valley Stream, New York, who then supplied it to Burlington resident Dannis D. Hackney. Hackney would then sell the pills to “Burlington area opiate addicts,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Clarke was arrested in Queens for his role in the conspiracy. He was due to appear in court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, and a date is expected to be set for Clarke to be arraigned in Vermont.
Foreste and Hackney were arrested in June 2014, and have been awaiting trial in custody since that time, according to the U.S. Attorney’s statement. The two face additional charges on drug trafficking and money laundering.
According to prosecutors, Hackney often transported the oxycodone pills he received from Clarke to Vermont in person. He would also send the pills through the U.S. Postal Service.
A report by the New York Daily News in July 2014 detailed that Foreste allegedly mailed the painkillers to Hackney’s two-month-old niece, sealed in Skittle candy packages.
The investigation, which involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security, and the New York City Police Internal Affairs Bureau, took more than a year to complete, the U.S. District Attorney said in a statement.
