Hudson Valley Drug Leader Pleads Guilty to Dealing Drugs That Resulted in Death

A Hudson Valley drug leader plead guilty to dealing drugs in the Hudson Valley. He also admitting to selling drugs that resulted in an overdose death.

In the Southern District of New York Court, 24-year-old Laukuan Rhyne, of Peekskill plead guilty to conspiring to distribute more than a kilogram of heroin in and around the Hudson Valley during 2014. He admitted that on January 26, 2014, in Peekskill, he sold heroin and fentanyl that resulted in the overdose death of a 23-year-old man.

According to the prosecution, Rhyne, who also goes by the name “Rico”, was the leader of a drug trafficking ring in the Hudson Valley. For most of 2014, Rhyne and his associates sold a large amount of heroin, crack cocaine, and powered cocaine.

Some of the heroin Rhyne distributed was laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is significantly stronger than both ordinary heroin and morphine.

On January 26, 2014, in the parking lot of a restaurant in Peekskill, Rhyne supplied a mixture of heroin and fentanyl to an associate to sell to a customer. The customer, 23-year-old, Thomas Coogan, of Buchanan died later that night after using the mixture.

Rhyne is scheduled to be sentenced on July 21. He faces 10 years to life in prison.