Oswego’s Drug Crackdown Gains Momentum Amid Rising Concerns

by Submitted article | May 2, 2025 11:32 am

The Oswego Police Neighborhood Engagement Team (OPNET) has been put to use as the local drug climate has intensified in recent years.
Recently, with drug distribution and use reaching concerning numbers, OPNET has received approval from Mayor Rob Corradino and police administrators to add specialized investigators to the unit. One investigator, Zackary Quinones, said,“Our genuine care for the community and the desire to make it a safer, healthier place for everyone.”
The Engagement Team has been making great strides in protecting the community from harmful substances that typically enter from bigger, surrounding cities like Syracuse and Rochester. Quinones said that they have heard of bigger dealers taking their business elsewhere and avoiding Oswego altogether after catching wind of how hard the force has been cracking down. However, the team is constantly aiming for improvement, knowing that with the current challenges of bail reform, a dealer who is arrested one day can be back on the streets the next. Even if OPNET cannot guarantee long-term incarceration, they can try their hardest to keep them out of Oswego.
Another, ever-evolving challenge the team faces is knowing and looking for the current trends. When first added to the department, the drug referred to as “molly” was the most popular. Molly is a mix of methamphetamine and bath salts that would be taken recreationally. After Molly, the next trends were the more affordable options, fentanyl and heroin. Currently, the drug with the most presence in Oswego County is crack cocaine.
A recent drug bust, that became very popular on social media, happened near the Stewarts Shops on the corner of West Fifth Street and West Utica Street. Ava John, a SUNY Oswego junior who lives by the Stewarts, witnessed the bust and posted a video of it to her TikTok profile, where it gained lots of attention from fellow students as well as alumni and others from the Oswego community.
John’s video, posted in March, made a serious situation a little more lighthearted. She witnessed the whole situation from almost start to finish. This included seeing a sniper squad and a K9 unit enter the property and seeing a SWAT unit enter the home and bring out multiple people. Ava later learned that the house this occurred at has had multiple problems before. Some of the people being detained remained calm whereas others acted out. John reported that of the four people that got arrested, two were let go, the owners of the house who had no involvement in the situation, and two were kept in custody.
When posting the video, Ava had the intent to raise awareness to the side of Oswego that isn’t always shown. “ I thought that it would also teach a lesson regarding safety when going out at night, and from living off campus for just one year I have witnessed countless incidents where I felt threatened or unsafe,” John said.
As stated, John’s video gained lots of traction on the app TikTok, where countless users commented. Some comments were from alumni sharing things such as, “please do not stay after college, this town offers NOTHING.” Another commented “As an Oswego graduate, I can tell you this is only the beginning.”
John said, “ I also posted this video to try and gain some attention to Oswego, so some of these issues could be talked about and recognized in other areas.”
OPNET has been active on social media recently sharing their weekly and monthly stats of all things crime. However, when doing so, sometimes they do not share mugshots or exact neighborhoods where these instances occurred.
OPNET was initiated in 2020 when former Mayor Billy Barlow found the need for more support for nuisance problems in surrounding neighborhoods. After implementation, it became clear that most issues in the town were drug-related. In the last five years, it has shifted gears from property patrol to combating the drug problem in Oswego. (650)

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Felicity Stockwell

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/community/oswegos-drug-crackdown-gains-momentum-amid-rising-concerns/

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