Following throughout Riverhead related to an East End Drug Task Force investigation, the Suffolk County district attorney's office announced Wednesday afternoon that 18 arrests in total will be announced by D.A. Thomas Spota on Thursday.
The arrests busted five reported members of the Bloods street gang and 13 others, uncovering weapons and counterfeit cash in a ring that allegedly linked cocaine traffickers in Kings County to Eastern Suffolk County. The suspects scheduled for arraignment on Thursday hail from Patchogue, Calverton, Riverhead, Westhampton, Flanders, and Southampton.
According to the D.A.'s office, the task force started its investigation last August and ultimately seized what the defendants believed was cocaine, but was in fact 26 ounces of crushed sheetrock and baking soda.
Spota's announcement comes just over a week after of one of Suffolk's largest alleged heroin rings.
The defendants will be arraigned before Judge Martin Elfman. The calendar will be called at 9:30 a.m.
