Northern NY drug dealing suspects rounded up - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

Chelsea Smith was surprised by who was knocking on the door of her Malone apartment shortly after 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

"Three state troopers at my door, they were knocking on my door. I opened my door and they had guns in their hands," she said.

Police were there to arrest Walter Lamay, 36, for dealing cocaine.

"They asked me if the person staying at the apartment building was living in my apartment. I was like no, I'm the only one that lives here," Smith said.

"The arrest warrants were an end to a 12-month investigation," N.Y. State Police Lt. Brent Davison said.

Early Tuesday morning, local, state and federal authorities arrested 18 suspects for allegedly dealing cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and prescription medicine in the Franklin County area.

"Heroin is being a big thing in Malone right now. That's a highly addictive drug and once you have that, it takes over. Then you got a real problem on your hands. It was coming from New Jersey, New York City. You can go to New York City and buy a bindle of heroin for $5 or $6; it's going for $30 up here. If you are buying 300 bindles, you are making a lot of money," Malone Police Chief Chris Premo said.

Ten of the 18 arrested Tuesday are accused of selling prescription drugs they obtained using Medicaid, meaning taxpayers paid for the drugs police say the suspects sold for profit. 

"That's why we are looking into types of fraudulent charges in trying to make sure these people no longer receive prescriptions for profit," Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Crawford said.

But prosecutors says since the state eased up on the Rockefeller drug laws eight years ago, it's tough to send a strict message to these local dealers. Some may only get a year behind bars.

"It used to be you would get upward of 25 years for sales. The vast majority of the people picked up in this round up are facing a maximum of nine," Crawford said.

Despite the unusual wake-up call, Chelsea Smith welcomed the roundup. She almost lost a close friend to the drug problem in the area.

"A close friend of mine OD'd, slipped a pill, didn't know where it came from or who did it, was in ICU for three days," Smith said. "Kind of a real problem around here."

Two of the suspects were arrested last week. Police are still looking for three of the suspects, but say they know where they are, including Walter Lamay.

The new license plate-reading cameras in the North Country designed to study the drug trafficking in the region were not used by investigators in this case. They are designed to be used in more large-scale operations across the state and nation, not local trafficking. Most of the deals in this case stayed in the county.

THE LIST OF SUSPECTS FROM POLICE:

Suspects Arrested or Suspects with outstanding warrants are as follow (note: an asterisk preceding a defendant's name denotes a Grand Jury indictment):