Drug Bust "Final Blow" Defendant Will Get 10-21 Years In Prison

Of the 12 arrests in the massive olice roundup called "Final Blow", defendant Joseph Bruno Pled Guilty to Conspiracy in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Second Degree. Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Monday, December 5,

2022, Joseph Bruno, 44, of Port Jervis, pled guilty in Orange County Court to Conspiracy in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Second Degree. Under the plea agreement announced on the record at the time that Bruno pled guilty, it is anticipated that Bruno will be sentenced to an aggregate term of ten to twenty-one (10-21) years in state

prison and five (5) years of post-release supervision. As part of his plea, Bruno agreed to forfeit $55,364 and three vehicles as fruits of his crimes.

Bruno was arrested as a result of an over four-month-long investigation designed to disrupt major narcotics trafficking in the City of Port Jervis and surrounding areas, including Pike County, Pennsylvania. The investigation, dubbed “Operation Final Blow,” was initially started by the City of Port Jervis Police Department, the Orange County Drug Task Force, the New

York State Police Violent Gang and Narcotics Enforcement Team, the Pike County Criminal Investigations Division of the Pike County District Attorney’s Office, and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, and included the use of court ordered eavesdropping, as well as the use and execution of seventeen search warrants.

Other law enforcement agencies who provided crucial information and

aid in the investigation included the Town of Deerpark Police Department, the City of Middletown Police Department, the Town of Wallkill Police Department, the Pennsylvania State Police, the New Jersey State Police, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, the Sussex County Guns, Gang and Narcotics Taskforce, and the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office. Federal

agencies who aided in the operation included Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), the FBI’s Safe Streets Taskforce and the United States Marshall’s Service Fugitive Task Force.

Search warrants executed during the investigation resulted in the seizure of approximately two kilograms of cocaine, 74 grams of heroin, 165 grams of fentanyl, 1,600 ecstasy pills and 235 pills containing oxycodone, as well as seven illegally possessed firearms and $153,690. Eleven automobiles, four motorcycles and two ATVs were also taken into evidence.