FALLSBURG — After a five day trial, the District Attorney (DA), Jim Farrell announced recently that repeat offender Ronald Smith, aka “Tubbs,” 45, of Fallsburg was sentenced to 35 years to life in state prison.

Smith has been convicted of Conspiracy in the 2nd and 4th Degrees, both felonies, as well as Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the 2nd Degree, a class A-2 felony. Smith was also convicted on four counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd Degree and Tampering with Physical Evidence, both felonies.

Smith was sentenced in Sullivan County Court by Judge Frank LaBuda who used Smith's own words — which Smith stated on his last felony conviction following his parole — “the streets are over for me.” Judge LaBuda said to Smith, “The streets are indeed over for you, and you will never again walk those streets as a free man.”

Farrell, who personally prosecuted this case, said the jury deliberated for about thirty minutes before rendering its verdict convicting Smith of all counts.

Smith was arrested last year on September 18, 2017, at his apartment in the Laurel Garden Apartments in South Fallsburg, after a lengthy investigation by the New York State Police Community Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET).

During the course of the investigation, State Police also purchased approximately 900 bags of heroin from a co-conspirator and accomplice.

Once the search warrant was enforced, it revealed Smith had in his possession over 20 bricks of heroin (1,000 bags) in the apartment and 31 bricks of heroin (1,550 bags) in a stash location in the Village of Liberty.

“Smith was the leader and proven kingpin of this organization and was responsible for distributing large quantities of the deadly drug heroin in our community,” said Farrell. “He [Smith] was a merchant of despair, suffering, pain, addiction, and death. With all the havoc heroin is wreaking on our community with overdose deaths, hospitalizations, and addiction, this sentence was particularly appropriate.”

The State Police narcotics unit was assisted in the investigation by the Fallsburg Police, the Sullivan County DA's office, New York State Police BCI and uniform division at SP Liberty, Village of Monticello Police, Village of Liberty Police, the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office, the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, and the New Jersey State Police.

“All of these police agencies worked collectively to bring down this organization and stop the flow of heroin from New Jersey to Sullivan County,” said Farrell.

Farrell further stated, “Smith has demonstrated that when he is at liberty in the community he is a clear and present danger. The sentence handed down today validates all of the hard work of all of the law enforcement in this County, and we have now shut down Smith's heroin business forever.”

Furthermore, Smith was also found guilty of offering to sell over a half an ounce of heroin to an undercover police officer and tampering with physical evidence by throwing twenty bags of heroin out a bedroom window after the warrant team breached the door.

According to the DA, Smith was still running his drug trafficking business while at the Sullivan County Jail and was using his son to help run the business.

Smith was previously convicted of five different drug felonies including Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 4th Degree, a class C felony, in 2012 in Orange County Court; Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the 5th Degree, a class D felony, in Kings County Court in 2006; Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd Degree: Narcotic Intent to Sell, a class B felony, in 2001 in Sullivan County Court; Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 5th Degree, a class D felony, in 1999 in Sullivan County Court; and Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 5th Degree, a class D felony, in 1997 in Sullivan County Court.

“None of the previous sentences deterred Smith in the least, with his second felony arrest in 1999 coming just four days after he was first released on parole”, Farrell said.

Judge LaBuda agreed with Farrell and called Smith a “mentor of crime and evil and a pariah in our society. He [Smith] must be removed from our society forevermore and . . . it is my clear purpose in this sentencing that Mr. Smith's life as an organized trafficker of heroin, is dead, and he will never have the opportunity to traffic in heroin again in his lifetime.”

Farrell said he urged LaBuda to find that Smith was a persistent felony offender to enhance Smith's sentence to life imprisonment given the seriousness of the crimes committed and Smith's prior criminal record and the clear and present danger Smith poses to our community using the Habitual Offender Law or the “Three-strikes Laws.”

“I am extremely pleased with the Court's sentence in this case. The evidence in this case clearly established that this defendant was the head of a significant and organized heroin trafficking organization that was responsible for putting thousands of bags of heroin on our streets.”

“He certainly deserved a life sentence in this case, especially given his criminal history which included five prior felonies - all involving narcotics,” said Farell.

“CNET's talented police officers are making a difference in Sullivan County,” added Farrell.

“We will continue to target those individuals who peddle this poison on our streets and seek to hold these individuals responsible and accountable through detection, investigation, and prosecution,” said Farrell.