Luis "Ariel" Capellan Maldonado, who was at the top of southeastern Connecticut's heroin distribution network as the drug surged in popularity a few years ago, was drinking top-shelf liquor at nightclubs, buying new clothes every week and routinely sending tens of thousands of dollars back to his hometown in the Dominican Republic.

At the other end of the supply chain, addicts in perpetual pursuit of their next bag of heroin were stealing or prostituting themselves to avoid becoming dope sick. First responders were finding unresponsive junkies, some with hypodermic needles stuck in their arms, in homes and hotel rooms.

Capellan Maldonado and about 50 co-conspirators were arrested and prosecuted in federal or state courts in one of the most far-reaching drug investigations in the region's history, receiving sentences of up to 10 years in prison. But the demand for heroin has increased since the April 2013 raids, according to law enforcement officials, and other drug dealers have filled the void.

Senior Assistant State's Attorney Paul J. Narducci, who works out of New London Superior Court and is cross deputized as a federal prosecutor, said the operation took a lot of players and a lot of drugs off the streets.

"Unfortunately, nature abhors a vacuum," Narducci said. "So when you remove one group, another is going to take its place."

Heroin, which has been used recreationally in the United States for more than a century and has been illegal since the 1920s, surged in popularity during the first decade of the millennium, in part because people turned to it when they could no longer afford or obtain highly addictive opiate painkillers.

Fatal heroin overdoses in New London County and statewide spiked in 2013 and preliminary figures from the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner indicate the numbers for 2014 were even higher. In the first six months of 2014, 165 people died from overdoses involving heroin, sometimes in combination with other substances, according to the medical examiner's office, which expects the figure for the full year to exceed 350. Heroin contributed to 257 overdose deaths in 2013 and 174 in 2012.

Capellan Maldonado's reign came to an end when law enforcement agents descended on New London County with helicopters and flash-banggrenades and rounded him up along with about 100 others. He'll be in federal prison for five years before being deported to the Dominican Republic, from which, his lawyer said, he had departed years ago on a raft.

A two-year investigation using wiretaps, surveillance, controlled purchases and other investigative techniques had preceded the so-called "take down" of people involved in overlapping conspiracies that supplied the region's buyers and sellers with heroin from the Dominican Republic and cocaine from Puerto Rico.

New London Patrolman Brian Laurie, a vice and intelligence officer, was at the center of the investigation, which was nicknamed Operation Jockmate because of the camaraderie with which local, federal and state agencies worked together. Laurie was involved with the investigation from the beginning and saw it through to the end, attending the sentencing hearings of Maldonado and several other conspirators.

In an interview last week, Laurie said the heroin problem is worse than ever in southeastern Connecticut.

"It made a significant impact for the short term," he said. "For the long term, it's still as popular as it was."

Laurie, a self-described "competitive individual" who received an award for his work on the federal task force, said authorities obtained "a tremendous amount of information" from the investigation and will not give up.

"Are we ever going to clean the streets? No," he said. "But I know there's individuals we haven't gotten who we're going to get. It may take time to get you, but when we get you, we're going to do it right."

Thirty major players in the heroin conspiracy, including Capellan Maldonado, were prosecuted in U.S. District Court. Two more remain at large - possibly out of the country - and are considered fugitives from justice. The others pleaded guilty following their arrests, and all but three have been sentenced. They received up to 10 years in prison depending on the amount of heroin they distributed and their criminal histories.

While the case was pending, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to reduce sentencing guidelines for most federal drug trafficking offenders effective Nov. 1, 2014. The changes resulted in one- to two-year reductions in prison terms for some of the Operation Jockmate defendants. Some avoided mandatory minimum sentences because of the change in Department of Justice policy.

Capellan Maldonado, 27, who owned a barbershop on Williams Street in New London, imported raw heroin in kilogram quantities, controlling his organization through generous cash payments and gifts to his co-conspirators, many of whom were close friends from the San Francisco de Macoris community in the Dominican Republic, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah P. Karwan.

Human carriers from the Dominican Republic would ingest heroin pellets and fly to New York City. The drug was processed by co-conspirator Ana Genao Pena of Washington Heights in New York City, and Capellan Maldonado relied on trusted associates to give him rides to New York to meet with sources and to drive him around New London to deliver heroin to customers.

As she sentenced him to five years in November 2014, Judge Janet Bond Arterton said she took into account his lack of a criminal record, non-violence and prompt acknowledgment of responsibility while also considering the devastation caused by heroin.

Penalties too harsh?

Other conspirators received harsher sentences.

Jose Morales, 53, of New London, a mid-level player who was purchasing heroin from associates of Capellan Maldonado and selling it to his own customers in quantities of five to 10 grams, received the longest prison term - 10 years - due to his criminal history and the circumstances of his arrest. Authorities said they found a shotgun, a .22-caliber semi-automatic pistol, several rounds of ammunition, heroin packaging material and $940 in cash in his Willetts Avenue apartment.

Morales had multiple prior felony convictions for sexual assault, violating a protective order, threatening, robbery and larceny.

A few of the federal defendants were allowed to participate in a "support court"program, under which a judge monitors their progress while they receive help for their addictions along with employment and educational services. Their charges could eventually be reduced or dismissed.

Heather "Barbie" Ranghelli, a 24-year-old from New London who took over the heroin distribution business of her boyfriend, Cruz "Jay" Bonilla, after he was incarcerated for a parole violation in 2012, had a chance at a rehabilitation program, but continued to sell heroin and even used her Twitter account to advertise the drug,according to the government. She was sentenced in November to 46 months in prison.

Luis Martinez of Salem, a trained barber, carried out his trade in New London barber shops and worked full time as a mason. In a June 2014 interview, his lawyer, Morgan Rueckert, said Martinez was serving a five-year sentence at a federal correctional camp in the south.

"There's two ways to look at it," Rueckert said. "One is that the street-level and mid-level traffickers are fungible (interchangeable) entities. If you arrest one person, another steps in. But there's also the view that if you come in and do a sweep and clear them all out you really are disrupting the trade and are taking whole operations out. Eventually somebody may step back in, but at least for a period of time you've taken the knees out of these organizations."

From a defense perspective, the toll on individual lives from this kind of raid is enormous and disruptive and more harsh than necessary to effectuate the purposes of the drug laws, he said. His client, who supported his family, is now hours away from them. When he gets out of prison, "it will be that much more difficult to take up his life again," Rueckert said.

"I think we're all recognizing now that harsher penalties under the federal drug sentencing laws are not achieving what they intended," he said.

Twenty-two people involved in heroin distribution were prosecuted in state court, according to Narducci. None of the cases went to trial. Some could not be proven and were not prosecuted, such as a case involving a heroin dealer's girlfriend who allegedly drove to some of the drug exchanges. Several defendants were granted entry into drug education programs, which resulted in a dismissal of their charges if they completed classes and stayed clean.

Erick J. "Jay" Torres, who Narducci said was using an automobile auction business as a front for distributing heroin, was sentenced in Superior Court to five years in prison followed by 90 months of special parole. His associate, Gregory Celestin, is serving five years in prison followed by seven years of special parole.

'Shine A Light On Heroin'

The demand for heroin is far greater than it ever has been, Laurie said, with users coming from every background and community. The drug keeps finding its way into the region, though law enforcement officials say that since the 2013 raids heroin cases in the region have involved smaller quantities of the drug.

"It's become part of our culture, I think," said Sgt. Wilfred Blanchette, the resident state trooper in East Lyme. "It's not an inner-city problem. It's an everybody problem."

In East Lyme, town officials organized an educational forum last year after two fatal heroin overdoses and weekly overdose calls.

None of the region's towns has been immune.

In Jewett City, state troopers who were newly trained and authorized to use a nasal injection of Narcan to treat overdose victims on Oct. 1, 2014, had saved three lives by the end of the year. Paramedics were already authorized to administer Narcan, and about 1,000 emergency medical technicians in the region have access to training.

In Stonington, two people died last year from fatal overdoses of heroin with the painkiller Fentanyl, according to Detective Sgt. David Knowles.

Late last year, a new grass-roots group, called "Shine A Light On Heroin," formed to address what its founders called "the ever-growing heroin crisis in Westerly and Stonington." In mid-January, hundreds of people gathered to toss white carnations from the bridge that unites the two communities, each representing a life lost to heroin.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter:@KFLORIN