Crime Scene

During a luncheon on Wednesday, the New York/New Jersey Law Enforcement Partnership honored police officers for their work breaking up a drug dealing gang in Rockland and federal agents for their work on illegal guns and gangs in the Hudson Valley Region.

The partnership is a civilian group recently formed to support police agencies in New York and New Jersey, Orangetown Police Chief Kevin Nulty said before Wenesday’s luncheon ceremony at the Casa Mia House on Route 304 in Blauvelt.

The honorees included John Gilbride, the special agent in charge of the New York Office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, and members of the Rockland County Narcotics Task Force. The task force officers and DEA were recognized for breaking up the “Karnell Street Crew,”  which operated in  the Hillcrest-Spring Valley border and distributed cocaine bought in New York City.

William McMahon, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, also was honored for the federal agency’s work investigating firearms and gangs in the Hudson Valley region.

The task force members honored were Director Joseph Tripodo (a state police captain), Assistant Director Russell Crawford, Detective Christopher Goldrick of the Rockland District Attorney’s Office, Detective Kevin Freeman of the Spring Valley Police Department, Detective Matt Ryder of the Orangetown Police Department, Task Force investigators Robert Fitzgerald from Ramapo Police Department, Timothy Hodges from Clarkstown Police Department, and several undercover investigators.