MONTICELO, NY — Two Sullivan County men who conspired to deliver significant amounts of cocaine in Sullivan County have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms on June 26.  Robert Ballard, 46 was sentenced to 14 years with 5 years of post release supervision.   Adrian Phillip, 33, of South Fallsburg, N.Y. was sentenced, to 12 years in state prison and 5 years of post-release supervision.

Sullivan County District Attorney Jim Farrell said Ballard was arrested in February 2016 after an investigation and had 300 grams of cocaine in the glove compartment of his car.  Some of the drug was to have gone to Phillips. A search of his home later turned up more cocaine as well as 46 grams of heroin and two loaded and illegal handguns.

Ballard had previously been served time in prison after being convicted of robbery and gun possession charges in Brooklyn.

Ballard’s wife, Simona Ballard, who was also initially charged as a co-defendant to the possession of the drugs found in the glove compartment of the car she was a passenger in, as well as the drugs and two handguns found at her house, entered a plea of guilty to criminal possession of a weapon for the illegal possession of a billy club found in the car, after her husband took full responsibility for the drugs and the guns found in the car and at the house.

The District Attorney’s Office recommended that Simona be sentenced to 3 years of probation for the weapon’s conviction, and she was sentenced to a conditional discharge. 

Farrell said that Phillip was the head of a substantial cocaine distribution conspiracy in Sullivan County and, when arrested in March of 2016, was also found to possess 300 grams of cocaine destined for distribution on the streets of the county. 

Phillip pleaded guilty in April of 2017.  He was sentenced as a second felony offender having a prior conviction in 2007 for Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance.

Both arrests came after a lengthy investigation by the New York State Police Community Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET), with assistance from the Monticello Police, the Fallsburg Police, the Liberty Police, the Sullivan County Sheriff, the New York State Police BCI, the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of N.Y. and the Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office. 

Farrell said that based upon Phillip’s status as a second felony offender and the leadership role he played in the drug trafficking conspiracy he recommended an aggregate sentence of 18 years in state prison, “Phillip was the leader of this cocaine distribution ring and was responsible for the distribution of large amounts of cocaine in our community, indeed over half a kilogram of cocaine was seized during this investigation, and, as a result, my office requested a sentence of 18 years in state prison.  I would like to thank all of the police agencies who worked so hard, in a joint and concerted effort, on this investigation to bring this substantial drug dealer to justice.”