[A] dozen people are facing charges for heroin trafficking after multipronged investigations by federal and state law enforcement, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in Burlington on Tuesday.
The busts are part of a broader uptick in prosecution of people involved in heroin trafficking in Vermont. Eighty-seven people have faced charges in 2015, compared to 56 last year — an increase of almost 60 percent, Eric Miller, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont, told reporters.
Miller announced that three recent drug busts, each carried out with coordination among multiple agencies, yielded approximately 20,000 bags of heroin, carrying a street value of $200,000, he said.
The three cases are not known to be related, Miller said. Last week, a grand jury handed down a 14-count indictment on a ring of eight people who allegedly trafficked heroin and crack cocaine from New Jersey to Vermont for a year and a half.
Earlier this month, local and federal law enforcement arrested three people in connection with a ring that allegedly supplied opiates to Chittenden and Franklin counties. In late August, police found a Rutland man in possession of nearly half-a-pound of heroin.
Miller said his office has charged more Vermont residents with crimes related to heroin than people from out of state, indicating that there is some homegrown involvement in the state’s drug-dealing infrastructure.
“I still think we tend to view heroin as a problem that has been injected into this state by outsiders, but that’s only part of the picture,” Miller said.
Mike Ferguson of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency said that the investigations show the involvement of “homegrown” activity in drug trafficking.
Miller announced the busts at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Burlington on Tuesday, flanked by nearly 20 state officials and law enforcers, including representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, the Vermont State Police, several municipal police departments and others.
He attributed the success of the investigations to the coordinated efforts among so many different agencies.
“None of us up here are declaring victory,” Miller said. “We all know that we have a lot, lot of work to do in the fight against heroin in the state of Vermont.”
Gov. Peter Shumlin applauded the work of law enforcement in the arrests.
“These dealers are not nice people,” Shumlin said. “They will do anything to get their profit, get their customers and pass this poison to Vermonters.”
The cases
The largest of the three busts concluded last week when a grand jury indicted eight people on 14 charges.
Prosecutors allege that Miguel Zayas of Jersey City, New Jersey, and Lamar Carter of Brattleboro supplied heroin to a ring that operated primarily in Caledonia County.
Karen Shumann, Derek Dawson, Ryan Farnham, all of St. Johnsbury, along with Thomas Newman of Barnet and Taylor May of Lyndon, helped to distribute the drugs, officials say. One other person who has not been arrested is facing charges for allegedly participating in the ring.
In early September, the DEA and Burlington and South Burlington police collaborated on a bust in a hotel room in South Burlington. Michael “Unc” Villanueva, Sarah Ellwood, who has a residence in St. Albans, and Felicia Livingston were arrested.
Villanueva is allegedly connected to three drug busts earlier this year, including one in January in which Tyrone Dixon was found with 80 grams of crack cocaine inside a loaf of bread.
On Aug. 20, Troy Barnes of Rutland was arrested after police found nearly half-a-pound of heroin and a loaded handgun in a kitchen pantry.
