


State pols on both sides of the aisle Monday lauded Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s demand for stricter bail laws for drug dealers as a deadly fentanyl wave sweeps New York.
“If you’re trafficking or dealing fentanyl, you know you’re sending New Yorkers struggling with addiction to their deaths,” said state Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D-Staten Island/southern Brooklyn) to The Post — which exclusively detailed Tierney’s push for Gov. Kathy Hochul to champion harsher laws.
“We cannot handcuff judges from holding these death dealers behind bars, where they can’t kill our loved ones anymore,” Scarcella-Spanton said.
Her Republican state Senate counterpart in Staten Island was even blunter.
“The purveyors of fentanyl are murderers,” Sen. Andrew Lanza said in support of making Class B felony drug-dealing a bail-eligible offense.
The comments come amid an attempt to strengthen the laws by Tierney, who detailed to The Post the challenges the current bail regulations pose when dealing with drug dealers.
In one case, according to the DA, drug dealer Vito Frabizio was busted in an undercover sting after selling a deadly narcotic in 2022 to a recovering addict, who then died of an overdose.
Frabizio was charged with a Class B felony for drug distribution and was cut free on supervised release since the charge was not bail eligible, according to Tierney. The dealer was then busted for selling fentanyl again while awaiting trial, he added.

Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-Staten Island) said, “There is no question that making Class B drug felonies a ‘qualifying offense’ would help in our battle against fentanyl.”
The high-addictive drug, which is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, has flooded the United States as Mexican cartels smuggle the synthetic drug in from the southern border and other ports of entry.
The opiod has led to a record number of fatal overdoses, with the CDC reporting more than 100,000 deaths over the 12-month span ending in July 2022.
Tierney is also calling on state lawmakers to increase penalties for dealers who are responsible for fatal fentanyl overdoses.

Few criminal cases are brought in overdose deaths because most dealers have no idea what is inside the illegal drug they are peddling, so it is hard to nail them on intent.
But state Sen. Monica Martinez (D-Brentwood) said those dealers are “one of the reasons why we’re in a crisis.”
Hochul’s office did not directly respond to Tierney’s pleas, instead highlighting the funding proposed in her budget that is aimed at tackling the epidemic.
“Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget makes transformative investments to make New York more affordable, more livable and safer, and she looks forward to working with the legislature on a final budget that meets the needs of all New Yorkers,” a rep said in a statement.