Ten people are facing a combined 153 criminal charges after New York state prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing them of running a cocaine trafficking network that stretched across Ulster and Orange counties. Investigators say the operation relied on coded language, a commercial trucking lot, and court-authorized wiretapping to build the case that led to the Ulster County Court filing.
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office announced the takedown Wednesday, and nine of the ten defendants were arraigned before Judge Bryan E. Rounds following their arrests, according to the New York State Attorney General's Office. In a post on X, the office's account, NY AG James
, said the arrests targeted a ring that had been “flooding communities in the Hudson Valley with cocaine,” calling the takedown “another big step forward” in efforts to dismantle trafficking networks that threaten New Yorkers’ safety.
Investigators recovered more than one kilogram of cocaine, estimated to carry a street value of roughly $30,000, along with more than $12,500 in cash during the operation. The office's press release states the drugs and cash were recovered across multiple search and interdiction actions carried out in Ulster and Orange counties.
A Wiretap Investigation and a Trucking Lot Front
The case grew out of an investigation that began in November 2024 and involved court-authorized wiretapping. The state's account notes that co-conspirators routinely used food terms like “pizza,” “pies,” and “water” as coded language to disguise cocaine transactions in text messages and phone calls, with investigators logging hundreds of hours of physical and electronic surveillance along the way.
Prosecutors identified Michael Felicello as the central figure of the ring, alleging he sourced cocaine from multiple regional suppliers and used the parking lot of RMC Trucking in Orange County as a primary meeting spot to buy and resell narcotics. The indictment outlines two interconnected schemes involving suppliers based in Newburgh and Ulster County, per the same state account.
Multiple Agencies Joined the Takedown
The operation was spearheaded by the Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force working alongside the Ulster County Sheriff's Office, the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team, and the New York State Police Special Investigations Unit. Local municipal police departments in Marlborough and New Windsor also provided investigative support, the office said.
This is not the first large-scale narcotics case the Attorney General's Office has brought to the Hudson Valley this year. In April, the office charged 26 individuals with 276 crimes and seized $350,000 worth of cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl in a multi-county sweep spanning nine counties, including Ulster and Westchester. And in February 2025, prosecutors dismantled a separate ring operating in Dutchess, Ulster, and Orange counties, seizing $745,000 worth of cocaine and fentanyl along with five illegal handguns in a 122-count indictment that accused ring members of selling fentanyl disguised as fake prescription pills.
Part of a Broader Regional Crackdown
The pattern extends beyond state-led busts. Regional narcotics enforcement in nearby Dutchess County reached record levels in 2025, with local task force officers executing 37 search warrants, conducting 230 undercover drug buys, and making 75 felony arrests, Hoodline reported. Local agencies in the Mid-Hudson Valley frequently team with state and federal units on high-risk cases, a dynamic that mirrors the multi-agency structure of Tuesday's takedown.
The indictment includes first-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, a class A-I felony, and second-degree sale, a class A-II felony. Hudson Valley courts have shown a willingness to impose lengthy sentences on convicted traffickers: earlier this month, an Orange County judge sentenced a 54-year-old Middletown man to 39 years to life in state prison after a jury convicted him of running a major local cocaine trafficking operation, with prosecutors invoking the state's persistent felony offender statute to secure that sentence.
As the case against Felicello and his co-defendants moves through Ulster County Court, defense attorneys are expected to scrutinize the wiretap authorizations and the strength of the circumstantial evidence prosecutors compiled during the investigation. For now, the Attorney General's Office is framing the arrests as another step in its multi-year push to unravel narcotics supply networks feeding communities throughout the Hudson Valley.
