An Oneonta man was rearrested Wednesday on charges he sold oxycodone powder, the latest arrest of alleged drug dealer in Operation Gold Rush, a multiagency investigation of oxycodone sales in Otsego and Delaware counties.
Luke John MacCracken, 21, of 8 Garden St., Oneonta, was accused of selling oxycodone powder last fall, according to the Otsego County Sheriff’s Office. He has been held in the Otsego County jail since October 2011 after being arrested during a raid at a home on County Route 4 in Wells Bridge, where oxycodone powder, money and weapons were seized. In that case, he was charged with selling oxycodone powder in September 2011, and bail was set at $25,000.
He was arraigned Wednesday by Otsego Town Judge Gary M. Kuch and remanded back to the county jail on an additional $25,000 bail. If convicted, MacCracken faces nine years in prison on top of any potential sentence in last year’s case.
A major target of the investigation, Dante D. Major, 36, of Hobart, was convicted last week of operating as a major trafficker under the state “drug kingpin” law. Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl described him as the largest dealer of oxycodone powder in Otsego and Delaware counties.
Muehl said this week he would seek a sentence of 15 years to life for Major, who has four prior felony convictions.
Two other defendants were arrested in July, said Senior Investigator Michael Ten Eyck of the Sheriff’s Office.
Ryan J. Holling, 29, of 11 Delaware Ave., Sidney, remains in the Ostego County jail on charges related to the sale of oxycodone powder in the Town of Oneonta last August. His bail is set at $25,000. Authorities are seeking a 12-year prison term in his case because he has a previous drug-sale conviction, Ten Eyck said.
Stephanie E. Davis, 27, of 43 Union St. in Sidney pleaded guilty after her arrest in August and was sentenced to diversion.
Further arrests are expected in the case, the Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
Operation Gold Rush is a joint narcotics investigation involving the Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Albany District Office and Tactical Diversion Squad and the Oneonta Police Department’s Detective Bureau.
