Former Riverhead resident pleads guilty to felony drug trafficking, sentenced to 10 years in prison

A former Riverhead resident was sentenced to 10 years in state prison last week following his guilty plea in July to felony charges of Operating as a Major Drug Trafficker and Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance.

Carlos Reyes-Redrovan, 32, of Philadelphia, was one of 29 people indicted in August 2024 as a result of a narcotics trafficking probe conducted jointly by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office’s East End Drug Task Force and several county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

In August 2023, Reyes-Redrovan, then a resident of Riverhead, approached off-duty undercover officers at a bar to offer them a sample of cocaine that he wanted to sell, and then provided them with his cell phone number, according to prosecutors and the defendant’s guilty plea. Over the next 10 months, Reyes-Redrovan sold undercover officers more than 37 ounces of cocaine as well as nearly 22 ounces of heroin, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a  press release Friday afternoon.

The undercover investigation also disclosed the identity of Reyes-Redrovan’s cocaine supplier, Akim Slater, 46, of Ronkonkoma, Tierney said. A search of Slater’s residence led to the discovery of a loaded and operable .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol, cocaine, and digital scales.

Reyes-Redrovan and Slater were both indicted last summer in one of three indictments after long-term investigations into narcotics trafficking spanning Brooklyn to Montauk that resulted in 29 arrests on 329 charges, Tierney said at the time. The multiple drug dealing operations had “significant activity” in Riverhead, Patchogue, Mastic, Shirley, Ronkonkoma, Bohemia, Sound Beach, Holbrook, Brentwood, and East Islip, according to the district attorney.

Slater pleaded guilty in June to Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree, a Class A felony, and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a Class C felony. He was sentenced on Sept. 3 to eight years in prison, followed by five years of post-release supervision.

Reyes-Redrovan pleaded guilty on July 24 to Operating as a Major Drug Trafficker and Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance, both Class A felonies, and on Sept. 3 was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by five years post-release supervision. 

The investigations were conducted jointly by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office’s East End Drug Task Force, the Suffolk County Police Department, the New York State Police, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the United States Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York, and prosecuted by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Narcotics Bureau and the East End Drug Task Force. 

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s East End Drug Task Force is comprised of members of District Attorney Investigators, East Hampton Town Police Department, New York State Police, Riverhead Police Department, Southold Police Department, Southampton Town Police Department, Suffolk County Police Department, and Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office.