Fourteen Rochester-area residents have been charged with running a cocaine distribution network that operated throughout the city and its suburbs.
The charges were in a sealed indictment, opened today in Monroe County Court. They include first degree narcotics sale and possession, conspiracy to distribute and more. The suspects are from Rochester, Churchville and the Village of Newark.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says the indictments cap a state and local investigation called Operation Thruway. The 11-month investigation included undercover drug buys, wiretaps and hundreds of hours of covert surveillance.
Police used that evidence to raid the home of Jamel Graham of Rochester, seizing large amounts of both powder and crack cocaine plus a complete drug packaging operation.
The indictment says Graham and another man named Samuel Ellington distributed cocaine between the Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls areas by means of the Thruway. Police were able to identify the key suppliers, distributors and dealers in the drug ring. Much of it allegedly operated at the Four Brothers Tavern at Hudson and Agnes Streets in Rochester.
Key players arrested include:
- Justin “Jay” Snowden, 25, of Rochester
- Derrick “Wood” Woodard, 47, of Rochester
- Ricardo Lebron, 38, of Rochester; and
- Lamark “Hank” Nixon, 43, of Rochester.
- Lateef Budd, 25, of Churchville
- Anthony Hester, 32, of Rochester
- Brandon Owens, 44, of Rochester
- Benjamin Reed, 56, of Rochester
- Jeremy Richardson, 42, of Newark, NY