PA Man Charged With Drug Possession In Hicksville: PD

HICKSVILLE, NY — A Pennsylvania man was charged with drug possession after he was caught with what police claim is heroin and methamphetamine during the anti-drug initiative “Operation Natalie” underway in Hicksville on Wednesday night, Nassau County police said.

Frank Randolph, 33, of Saylorsburg, was found with 46 small plastic envelopes filled with what investigators believe to be heroin, police said, adding a substance believed to be methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia were also found.

Detectives said that at about 10 p.m., Randolph was seen driving a black Hyundai Sonata on South Oyster Bay Road and committed multiple traffic infractions.

Officers on patrol under “Operation Natalie,” named after 18-year-old Natalie Chiappa who died of a heroin overdose in 2008, signaled for Randolph to pull over and when he parked, he got out of the Hyundai and started to walk away from them and reaching toward his pocket where he had a knife, police said.

Randolph struggled with officers and was taken into custody, police said. He had a forged Rhode Island driver’s license, as well as the personal information of another person, and equipment to manufacture and fabricate fraudulent documents, such as identification and credit cards, police said.

He was also caught with a blank Social Security card, 54 governmental identification holograms belonging to various states, 22 blank chip credit cards, and over 100 blank credit card templates, according to police. Re-encoded forged credit cards and three credit card reading devices were also found in Randolph’s possession, police said.

An investigation was conducted with the U.S. Secret Service, the State Department of Motor Vehicles and the Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center, according to police.

Randolph is charged with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, six counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, and four counts of criminal possession of forgery devices, police said.

He was additionally charged with criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument, false impersonation, and second-degree obstructing governmental administration, as well as multiple traffic infractions, according to police.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday in Mineola. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in a state prison.