NEW YORK CITY, NY — A man identified by law enforcement officials as a drug kingpin, who had been operating out of the Dominican Republic, and whose alleged dealings were responsible for an overdose death in Livingston Manor, has been extradited to New York and at press time was due to be arraigned on drug trafficking charges.

Officials say Anyerson Delacruz-Rosario supplied heroin and fentanyl packaging operations in the Bronx that distributed hundreds of thousands of individual packets of the drugs between December 2014 and March 2016.

The fentanyl being sold in this case was especially significant, said DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan. “In May 2015, DEA and our law enforcement partners confronted a new enemy—in the form of a fentanyl kilo, potent enough to kill half a million people,” he said. “It was one of the first times we had seen fentanyl in a brick form, mimicking a kilo of heroin.”

The road to Delacruz-Rosario’s arrest was sparked by an overdose death in Livingston Manor in 2013. The death prompted Sullivan County Sheriff Mike Schiff to track down the dealer with the help of multiple state and federal agencies and officials.

That effort resulted in the May 2015 arrest of five people in New York City involved in a drug-ring operation that stretched from Long Island to Livingston Manor. Officials at the time seized $5 million worth of heroin (more than 26 pounds), $115,000 in cash and two guns. A total of 11 people were ultimately arrested and 10 pleaded guilty to drug-related charges.

The investigation involved a long-term wire tap, and according to a press release from officials involved in the case, “The wiretap investigation continued after the arrests and revealed that, from the Dominican Republic, Delacruz-Rosario set up a new heroin-packaging mill in the Bronx later that same year. The strike force identified Joel Monegro as the manager. Intercepted calls between Delacruz-Rosario and Monegro showed Delacruz-Rosario directing the operations of the heroin-packaging mill, including arranging for the acquisition of kilograms of heroin from a supplier. Additionally, Delacruz-Rosario negotiated with customers. Agents and officers arrested Monegro, mill associates, the mill’s main supplier and the mill’s biggest customer as part of a coordinated takedown in March of 2016.”

Delacruz-Rosario was arrested on July 10 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and transported to New York on August 23. An indictment was filed against him in New York and charges him with two counts of operating as a major trafficker, which carries a possible life sentence.

Sheriff Schiff said, “Heroin traffickers like Anyerson Delacruz-Rosario, who are based outside of the U.S., think that they are out of the reach of law enforcement when they set up their narcotics distribution networks in upstate New York. They don’t realize that we will use all of the resources at our disposal to get to the source of the heroin that is poisoning our community.”

The organizations involved in this years-long effort include the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force (NY OCDESF), Group Z-41, the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Heroin Interdiction Team (HIT) and Investigators Unit, the New York State Police, the New York City Police Department, HSI New York and the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said, “The indictment announced today sends an important message. We will relentlessly pursue drug barons who reap millions in profits by causing addiction and death in New York, regardless of their attempts to insulate themselves in foreign lands.