ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A multi-state drug bust led to the seizure of over $100,000 worth of drugs by local law enforcement, state police, and federal agencies. Search warrants were executed in Ontario and Monroe counties, along with New York City, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

Reinaldo Suarez of Rochester and Oscar Alvarado of Greece are being held without bail at the Monroe County Jail.

“To seize two pounds of heroin and fentanyl you think of how little amount it takes to render someone unconscious and affect their breathing and stop their breathing, so by our estimation, we’ve saved dozens if not hundreds of lives,” said Ontario County Sheriff David Cirencione.

Sheriff Cirencione says these suspects were very talented and ran a detailed-oriented operation. He says the sheriff’s office continues to respond to fatal overdoses regularly.

“We’ve removed significant amounts of drugs from the street before it could be sold to people in our community and as we know some of the people impacted by these drugs are pretty young,” Sheriff Cirencione said.

According to the Monroe County Opioid Overdose Dashboard, year-to-date opioid deaths are at 91. There have been 13 deaths in the month of June and four for the week ending June 28th.

Randy Cimino, the president of the Gates to Recovery, an addiction treatment center, says this is great work by law enforcement but it will make little difference for drug users.

“The amount of drug dealers we arrested is nothing. Let’s look at it in the sense of how many pharmacies are in Rochester. If we lose five of them would that hurt us? I would say no. I had four or five places where I could buy drugs. This one drops off the next one is picking it up,” Cimino said.

He says the best impact for users is to find a solution for themselves. When users can’t get the drug they want, they substitute it with the next one.

“These men and women are starving themselves to buy the next bag. They are living on the streets. It’s horrible, animals don’t live like this.”

Marsha: “So what’s the positive message here?”

Randy: “The positive message is the police are not going to stop.”

And that’s what Sheriff Cirencione says, they won’t stop. His message to drug dealers: “You may not think we are on to you, but you never know, you may just be the people we are watching.”

Sheriff Cirencione says more arrests are coming but couldn’t say how long it will be before more people are charged.

Contact Gates to Recovery here.

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