Seven men were arrested last week in connection with a drug ring that distributed heroin throughout several Long Island towns, authorities said.
The suspects were all busted on a bevy of charges including drug trafficking and possession in connection with a two-month investigation into heroin in Nassau County.
Authorities said those who were arrested included a father and two sons. The ring sold as much as $10,000 in heroin across the south shore of Long Island each week.
"This is a significant drug distribution ring," said Acting Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter.
One of those arrested also allegedly sold drugs out of his Freeport home, which sits across the street from a daycare.
The arrests come as heroin overdose deaths skyrocket. Authorities say that 45 people have died from overdoses so far this year, more than 1/3 of all overdose deaths over a four-year period that ended in 2013.
"Families are losing loved ones at a rate we've never before seen," said Steve Chassman, a counselor with the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.
