Long Beach Drug Dealer Found Guilty Of All Charges Against Him

A major supplier of heroin in the Long Beach area was found guilty on Wednesday of all the charges against him.

Rodney Coward, 44, of Long Beach, was convicted of second-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He is due back in court for sentencing on July 24, and faces up to 10 years in prison.

“The arrests associated with Operation Beech Sweep have dramatically reduced the amount of heroin and other drugs sales in Long Beach,” said Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas. “Rodney Coward possessed more than one ounce of uncut heroin, an amount that when cut and sold would have been more than 2,000 individual bags of heroin. With this conviction, we’ve removed a career drug dealer who routinely sold poison in our communities.”

According to Singas, in June 2017, acting on a tip, the Nassau County Police Department DA Squad Detectives began a 14-month-long investigation dubbed ‘Operation Beech Sweep’ into a drug trafficking ring operating primarily in Long Beach.

On June 23, 2017, Coward — who was driving a rental car with Michigan license plates — was seen in Island Park selling 31 grams of uncut heroin, enough to make approximately 2,000 doses of heroin.

As the investigation progressed, it was revealed that the alleged ringleader of the group was Robert Gause. During the investigation, Gause received crack/cocaine, and cocaine, from Carlos Andujar, an alleged Latin King gang member, Singas said. Gause also supplied drugs to Ronnie Sutton, Harold Chestnut and Coward, Singas said, who then allegedly sold to dozens of local users in Long Beach, Inwood and Atlantic Beach. Gause also allegedly had connections to buy and then resell heroin, oxycodone pills and Xanax.

More than half a kilogram of drugs and more than 100 pills were recovered during the investigation. Additionally, during the execution of a search warrant, a loaded .357 Magnum Revolver and a shotgun were found inside Sutton’s home, Singas said.

The drug ring, which operated along Beech Street in Long Beach for several years, bought and sold only to "insiders" with the hope of shielding themselves from arrests and prosecutions. The five men were arrested in November 2018.