Baldwin woman charged with Quaalude trafficking

Twenty-two people, including one Baldwin resident, were arrested April 6 and April 7 in connection with a nationwide Quaalude trafficking and distribution ring that went from Baldwin to Brooklyn to California.

Ana Sanchez, 37, of Baldwin, was arrested in the massive takedown that came after a three-year law enforcement investigation into Quaalude trafficking.

Quaaludes, or methaqualone, are sedative-hypnotic drugs that were popular in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Also arrested were Barry Goldring, 57, Theresa Goldring, 50 and Bruce Siegman, 53, all of Bellmore; and wife of drug trafficking ringleader Dennis Fairley, 65, of Manhattan, and Edward Rubin, 58, of Oceanside.

The investigation began in Nassau County in November 2007 after local police were tipped off while arresting a man in an unrelated matter.

Eventually, the investigation grew to include members of the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, Nassau County Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Financial Investigation Team and the United State's Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Investigators learned that Fairely, a laboratory owner and chemist, used two chemical testing labs he owned in Brooklyn and Emeryville, CA, to manufacture hundreds of thousands of quaaludes each year. The drugs sold on the street for an average of $35 a pill, according the Nassau County District Attorney's Office.

"This case serves as a model of what law enforcement agencies can do together," Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said, "and as a warning to to those who manufacture and sell illegal drugs, if you think you are untouchable and no one is watching, think again. You are wrong."

The Goldrings, Seigman, Sanchez and Rubin were charged with one count of conspiring to distribute methaqualone and face up to 20 years in prison and fines of more than $1 million. Fairley is charged with two counts of the same charge.