Newburgh man gets 13.5 years in Orange County drug, gun case

A Newburgh drug and gun network that prosecutors say hid behind a food truck and spread across Orange County has now sent Dwayne Salmon to state prison for 13 and a half years. The 46-year-old Newburgh man was also ordered to five years of post-release supervision after pleading guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree.

His sentence is the latest fallout from Operation Hot Lunch, a six-month, multi-agency investigation that Orange County officials say exposed a sprawling narcotics and firearms conspiracy tied to Newburgh, Middletown, Poughkeepsie and other parts of the county. Prosecutors said the case led to 26 arrests on May 21, 2024, with two people awaiting extradition and one in ICE custody, and eventually involved 33 defendants facing narcotics, firearm and conspiracy charges.

Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler and Sheriff Paul Arteta have described the case as the largest gun trafficking investigation in county history and as the takedown of a $3 million-a-year cocaine ring. Law enforcement said the probe, led by the Orange County Drug Task Force with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the district attorney’s office, the City of Middletown Police Department, New York State Police, the City of Poughkeepsie Police Department and the Hudson Valley Crime Analysis Center, recovered 24 firearms and 1 kilogram of cocaine during the investigation.

On the day of the enforcement action, officers seized more than 11 kilograms of cocaine, about 90 grams of fentanyl, seven guns, high-capacity magazines, ammunition, about $45,000 in cash, scales, packaging materials, 10 vehicles and one food truck. Prosecutors said the truck was parked about 150 feet from the Newburgh City Courthouse, where police officers, court officers and members of the public bought food without knowing it was allegedly being used to conceal drug and gun activity.

Authorities said the investigation centered on four conspiracies tied to narcotics and firearms trafficking. Kirkland Salmon was said to be at the center of the operation and was later sentenced to 12 years in prison on April 21, 2026. Other defendants have continued to be sentenced in 2026, including Owen Beckford, who received 15 years on Jan. 28 and forfeited $8,909, and William Pulley, who got 12 years on March 2 after prosecutors said he sent guns from outside Orange County into the local market.

Dwayne Salmon’s sentence closes one more chapter in a case that prosecutors say changed the picture of trafficking in Newburgh by showing how drugs and guns were moved through an ordinary-looking business parked in the shadow of the county courthouse. The remaining convictions continue to trace the scale of the network and the reach of the public-safety threat officials say it created.