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Rockland County resident Justin Turnick, age 25, of Congers, was arrested on Wednesday, July 12 by agents with the Westchester Resident Agent Task Force for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), along with local law enforcement agencies, said Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Turnick was charged with distributing fentanyl that resulted in death or serious bodily injury to five victims between February 2020 and April 2022 in Rockland County, the US Attorney's Office said.
Williams said Turnick was well aware of the dangers of the poison he peddled as he had witnessed three of his victims overdose before his own eyes, but he continued to distribute the drug anyway.
Rockland County District Attorney Tom Walsh said in 2021, the county reported 70 overdose deaths.
"That number is completely unacceptable," Walsh said. "I commend the hard work of the Rockland County District Attorney's Drug Task Force, the DEA, and the prosecutors of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.”
According to the allegations in the Indictment Turnick engaged in the regular distribution of narcotics to members of his community in Rockland County, including his friends, partners, and acquaintances.
In particular, he knowingly distributed, among other narcotics, fentanyl — a deadly and highly potent opioid — in various forms, including fentanyl that had been packaged into pills, pure fentanyl, and fentanyl-laced powder, the indictment said.
Turnick's fentanyl distribution was responsible for at least six overdoses, four of which he personally observed. The victims were between the ages of 19 and 24 at the time of their overdoses, the indictment said. Two victims died as a result of consuming fentanyl provided by Turnick.
Turnick was charged with two counts of narcotics distribution resulting in the deaths and four counts of narcotics distribution resulting in serious bodily injury. Each of these counts carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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