Fentanyl Smuggling Ring Upended at Riverside County Jail Facility - 27 East

Fentanyl Smuggling Ring Upended at Riverside County Jail Facility

icon 3 Photos
A fentanyl smuggling plot at the Riverside jail facility included drug-laced legal papers. TOM GOGOLA

A fentanyl smuggling plot at the Riverside jail facility included drug-laced legal papers. TOM GOGOLA

Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney and Sheriff Errol Toulon spelled out a plot to smuggle fentanyl into the Riverside jail facility. TOM GOGOLA

Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney and Sheriff Errol Toulon spelled out a plot to smuggle fentanyl into the Riverside jail facility. TOM GOGOLA

Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon highlighted the dangers to corrections staff when dealing with the fentanyl scourge at the Riverside jail. TOM GOGOLA

Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon highlighted the dangers to corrections staff when dealing with the fentanyl scourge at the Riverside jail. TOM GOGOLA

Tom Gogola on Nov 21, 2023

Five people were indicted last week for attempting to smuggle fentanyl into the Suffolk County Correctional Facility, soaking the drug into paper and then smuggling it in via unsuspecting lawyers as legal documents.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney and Sheriff Errol Toulon were on hand at the Arthur Cromarty Court Complex in Riverside on November 16 to announce the indictments.

“Here we go again,” said Tierney to a room crowded with reporters and law enforcement officials as he spelled out a plot whereby the deadly drug was sprayed onto legal papers and then given to a defense attorney to deliver to the jail, unaware of the plot.

The plan, said Tierney, was for the papers to be cut up into smaller credit-card size pieces by the inmates and sold in the jail.

The plot was upended before the drugs were delivered to their intended recipient, said Tierney, who described the attempt as the “latest iteration” of a fentanyl crisis on Long Island that has left 399 overdose deaths in its wake. The problem is “getting worse,” he said, calling on state and county leaders to step up with legislation to address the crisis.

The attempted smuggling wasn’t the first time fentanyl had been brought into the jail, but the utilization of seemingly legitimate legal papers to deliver the drug represented one of the “more audacious attempts,” said Toulon, who noted that the fentanyl is 20 times more valuable in jail than on the street.

“If these criminals were successful in their attempt to smuggle more than $20,000 of deadly fentanyl into the jail, there is no doubt that tragedy would have followed,” Toulon noted in a follow-up press release announcing the multiple indictments.

Here’s how the plot unfolded, according to Tierney:

Back in August, corrections officials at the Riverside jail were tipped off that Jyzir Hamilton, 35, an inmate in the jail, was planning to have his girlfriend, Janiah Williams, 24, deliver fentanyl-laced papers to him through his defense attorney, “who allegedly had no knowledge of the plan,” according to the press release.

Hamilton then made a call to Alyssa Brienza, 30, and asked her about obtaining fentanyl. She, in turn, is alleged to have contacted Arnold Foster, 33, who is serving time at the Green Haven Correctional Facility upstate following his conviction for dealing drugs. Foster is alleged to have “set the price for the fentanyl to be sold to Hamilton,” setting in motion the attempted smuggling gambit.

Brienza is alleged to have delivered four blank pieces of paper to Williams that were then sprayed with “a liquid laced with fentanyl” that also contained acetone. Williams then told Brienza to contact an attorney who was representing Eric Freeman, 48, who told his attorney that someone would be delivering legal papers to him and asked that he pass along those documents, which would be delivered by Williams to Hamilton at the jail, via the attorney.

On August 23, Williams contacted the attorney and said she was on her way to the jail. She was arrested as she entered the Cromarty Building, where county sheriff officers “allegedly found a manila enveloped containing four pages with legal terms printed on them” in her possession.

Indictments followed in November for the five defendants, all of whom hail from Long Island.

Hamilton was charged with four felonies and a misdemeanor; Brienza was indicted on six felony counts and two misdemeanors; Williams was indicted on five felony charges; Freeman was indicted on one felony count; and Foster was also charged with a single felony. The charges include conspiracy, promoting prison contraband, attempted sale of a controlled substance and others.

Toulon and Tierney encouraged vigilance among attorneys in light of the alleged smuggling plot and seemingly relentless attempts to distribute fentanyl in the jail.

Toulon said the jail was “getting mail from ‘makeshift’ law firms that all had to be analyzed, creating an ongoing safety hazard for jail officials who may come into contact with the lethal lab-created drug. There were “already fentanyl-laced papers” coming into the jail before this brazen plot was upended, the sheriff said, noting the difficulty in safely screening the mail without causing harm to staffers or canine units that might typically be deployed to sniff out contraband.

You May Also Like:

Southampton Police Reports for the Week of April 3

HAMPTON BAYS — A Hampton Bays man was arrested by Southampton Town Police on April 1 in connection with a March 9 theft of a boat trailer from an East Quogue property. Anthony Colonna, 29, was charged with grand larceny, a felony, and conspiracy to commit a crime, a misdemeanor, for his role in the theft of the trailer, which was valued at $8,000. Police had previously arrested a Medford man, Christian Klemm, 29, in connection with the crime, who was charged with two felonies for possession of stolen property and grand larceny. 2 Apr 2025 by Staff Writer

Southampton DWI Arrests for the Week of April 3

Enrique F. Diaz Chocho, 36, of Flanders was arrested just after 6 p.m. on March 29 and charged with DWI after Southampton Town Police officers responded to a report of a two-car accident on Flanders Road near Red Creek Road and found Chocho had been driving one of the vehicles in an intoxicated condition. Nicholas Davis, 18, of Hampton Bays was arrested just after midnight on March 29 and charged with DWI after he was involved in a one-car crash on Oaktree Lane in East Quogue and was determined by a responding Southampton Town Police officer to have been drinking ... by Staff Writer

The Mountain

Southampton Town officials, it must be said, are very much on point when it comes to affordable housing. It’s not just lip service: The town is doing its level best to begin to address the ongoing crisis that is making it harder for the town’s workforce to stay here, and more difficult for the town’s business community to fill positions. It became problematic a few years ago, but today it’s probably the biggest issue Town Hall faces. And it appears that all hands are on deck. The town’s voters also have done their part, approving a new Community Housing Fund ... by Editorial Board

Final Hurdle Cleared for Algae Harvesters at Lake Agawam

The final hurdle standing in the way of green-lighting an algae harvester project at Lake ... by Cailin Riley

Eastport Tobacco Shop Closed After Illicit Cannabis Raid; Employee Arrested

Suffolk County Police arrested the employee of an Eastport tobacco shop last week for illegally ... by Staff Writer

April Express Sessions Will Focus on Pros and Cons of Historic District Expansion in Southampton Village

The delicate push and pull between preservation and property rights is familiar to many East End homeowners, as well as local government officials, and it’s an issue that’s been a particular flashpoint in Southampton Village recently. An analysis of a proposed historic district expansion in Southampton Village will be the topic of discussion for the next Express Sessions panel discussion, set for Thursday, April 10, from noon until 2 p.m. at Union Burger Bar at 40 Bowden Square in Southampton Village. The village received a $40,000 Certified Local Government Historic Preservation Grant from the state last fall to study the ... by Cailin Riley

Hampton Bays Cannabis Shop Roils Residents Right out of Gate

With objections to a proposal to open a pot shop in a former bank building ... by Michael Wright

Proposed Westhampton Beach Village Budget Would Increase Taxes by 9 Percent, Piercing State Tax Cap

The Westhampton Beach Village Board is poised to adopt a $14.4 million fiscal year 2025-26 ... by Bill Sutton

Southampton Village Union Alleges Mishandling of Sensitive Employee Records

The leadership of the Civil Service Employees Association, the union that represents much of the ... by Cailin Riley

Southampton Town Will Eliminate Red Lights on County Road 39 for Two Weeks as Experiment on Traffic Flow

Southampton Town will expand its “cops and cones” traffic management efforts with a novel experiment ... by Michael Wright