Glen Cove Man Dies of Heroin Overdose, Police Arrest Alleged Dealer

A Glen Cove man was found dead due to a suspected heroin overdose on Saturday and a subsequent investigation led to the arrest of the man’s alleged drug dealer, Glen Cove police said.

The dealer who supplied the 25-year-old man with heroin in Glen Cove was identified as Brandon Jones, 26, of Glen Cove. Jones was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell.

He was arraigned on Sunday and is being held in East Meadow Correctional Center on $100,000 bail.

The abuse of opioid drugs like OxyContin, hydrocodone, and heroin are on the rise throughout Long Island, and Glen Cove is no exception, police said.

To fight this rising heroin epidemic, all Glen Cove officers are trained in administering the opioid overdose drug Narcan. All officers carry Narcan with them when they are on patrol so they can promptly administer the drug to a person in need.

As soon as a suspected overdose is reported, an officer will immediately begin an investigation to find out who sold the drugs to the victim.

“It’s not easy,” Detective Lieutenant John Nagle said. “ In a perfect world we would be able to immediately identify the dealer and take them off the street, unfortunately that’s not the case! Many times family and friends are reluctant to cooperate or sometimes just didn’t realize their son or daughter had a drug problem.”

In the most recent situation, however, the alleged drug dealer was located.

How to prevent the rise of opioid use:

• Parents are urged to safeguard their medication— oftentimes, teens who become addicted to heroin first began experimenting with prescription drugs that they found in their parent’s medicine cabinet.
• Parents are urged to communicate with their children— listen to them and talk to them about peer pressure.
• Telltale signs of a possible problem— changes in grades, different sleeping patterns, sudden weight loss, impaired physical and mental coordination, sudden change in friends and changes in attitude.
• If a child or loved one has a drug problem— visit a doctor’s office to get the healing process started. Counseling, addiction treatment programs and rehab centers are available.

Image via GCPD