New York, NY - September 18, 2017 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the guilty pleas of 39 individuals related to Operation Bricktown, the takedown of a drug trafficking ring by the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force and the Syracuse Police Department in and around Onondaga County. The operation, which focused on Syracuse’s violent Bricktown street gang, was part of Attorney General Schneiderman’s Suburban and Upstate Response to the Growing Epidemic (“S.U.R.G.E.”) Initiative—a crackdown on New York’s growing heroin, opioid, and narcotics trafficking networks, just one element of a multi-faceted approach the office is employing to fight the opioid epidemic. Last week, Attorney General Schneiderman announced 55 guilty pleas in Operation Gravy Train, another SURGE Initiative takedown.
Over the course of the twelve-month Operation Bricktown investigation, authorities seized:
- Over two kilograms of cocaine
- 1,128 envelopes of heroin and over 20 grams of loose heroin
- 9mm Lorcin handgun, loaded and with the serial number obliterated (through ballistics testing, this gun was linked to thirteen incidents in Syracuse from 2015 to 2016)
- .40 caliber Glock handgun, loaded with a 30-round magazine
- 9mm Sig Sauer handgun, loaded with a 15-round magazine
- .45 caliber Taurus handgun, loaded
- 12-gauge shotgun
- Drug paraphernalia, including scales, packaging and cutting agents
- $3,657
- ecstasy pills and psychedelic mushrooms
“We’re committed to stopping the flow of dangerous drugs into New York communities,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “From taking dangerous traffickers off our streets, to improving access to addiction treatment and vital overdose antidotes, to reducing doctor shopping, we’ll continue to use all the tools in our arsenal to tackle the drug epidemic.”
The sentencing details of the defendants are:
- Rasue Barnett: Will be sentenced on October 2 to 2 years in prison and 1 year post-release supervision, concurrent to his sentence in Operation Gravy Train
- Bishop Black: Sentenced on August 28 to a 1 year jail sentence
- Delaughn Brown: Sentenced on September 7 to 1-3 years in prison
- Christopher Caldwell: Will be sentenced on October 16 to 4 years in prison and 1 year post-release supervision
- Devon Christman: Sentenced on September 18 to probation
- Artel Clarke: Sentenced on July 5 to 2 years in prison and 1 year post-release supervision
- Khalil Davis: Will be sentenced on September 29 to 5 years in prison and 2 ½ years post-release supervision, concurrent to a sentence on an unrelated robbery in Onondaga County Court
- Kivon Davis: Sentenced on July 7 to 5 years’ probation
- Savon Ellick-Sanders: Sentenced on September 7 to 3-9 years in prison to run concurrently with an additional sentence of 6 ½ years in prison with 5 years post-release supervision
- David Floyd: Sentenced on July 20 to 2 years in prison and 1 year post-release supervision
- Lyndard Funderbrug: Sentenced on July 7 to probation
- Raymond Harris: Sentenced on August 28 to 1-year in jail
- Joshua Hester: Sentenced on September 7 to 3 ½ years in prison and 2 years post-release supervision
- John Horton: Sentenced on August 28 to 5 years’ probation
- Shantajah Hunter: Sentenced on September 7 to 5 years’ probation
- Matthew Hutchins: Sentenced on September 18 to probation
- Quincy Jones: Sentenced on August 29 to 8 years and 1 ½ years post-release supervision to run concurrent with a sentence of 2-4 years in prison
- James Kelly: Sentenced on July 7 to time served and 5 years’ probation
- Terrence Kilmer: Sentence will be determined by the court on October 16
- Shakeem Kitchen: Sentenced on July 7 to 2 years in prison and 1 ½ years post-release supervision
- Antwan McGee: Sentenced on July 27 to 4 years in prison and 1 ½ years post-release supervision
- Gary Moore: Sentenced on September 7 to probation
- Michael Morgan: Will be sentenced on September 29 to 5 years in prison and 1 ½ years post-release supervision to run concurrently with an additional sentence of 3-6 years in prison
- Matthew Muldoon: Sentence will be determined by the court on September 29
- Michael Myers: Sentenced on July 20 to 4 ½ years in prison and 1 ½ years of post-release supervision
- Kamar Parke: Sentenced on July 5 to 3 to 6 years in prison
- Joshua Poole: Sentenced on July 7 to 2 years in prison and 1 year post-release supervision, which will run consecutively to a prison sentence he is serving from an unrelated Cortland County case
- Reggie Robinson: Sentenced on July 5 to 3 years in prison and 3 years post-release supervision
- Kendrick Rowser: Sentenced on July 27 to time served and probation
- Miquan Russo: Sentenced on July 20 to 5 years in prison and 1 ½ years of post-release supervision
- Charles Scott: Sentenced on September 7 to 6 years in prison and 5 years post-release supervision
- Lacy Sellers: Will be sentenced on September 29 to 5 years’ probation
- Daquan Sullivan: Will be sentenced on October 2 to 3 1/2 years in prison and 3 years post-release supervision
- Demetrius Sullivan: Will be sentenced on October 16 to 3 years in prison + 2 years post-release supervision, which is anticipated to run consecutively to a Federal violation of probation
- Terri Tyler: Sentenced on July 27 to probation
- Glen White: Will be sentenced on September 25 to 4 ½ to 9 years in prison to run concurrently with another sentence of 7 years in prison with 1 ½ years of post-release supervision
- Emerson Kinsey: Will be sentenced on October 16 to 4 years in prison and 1 ½ years post-release supervision
- Asian McArthur: Will be sentenced on October 10 to 2-4 years in prison
- Kelly Babbitt: Sentenced on August 4 to 5 years’ probation
The Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) has now taken down 25 large drug trafficking gangs, made more than 580 felony narcotics arrests, and seized more than $1.5 million and more than 2,000 pounds of illegal drugs since 2011. In the past several months alone, Attorney General Schneiderman’s SURGE initiative resulted in 260 alleged traffickers and dealers taken off the streets across New York, through Operation Bricktown, Operation Un-Wise, Operation Gravy Train, Operation Bloodsport, Operation Pipeline, and Operation Wrecking Ball.
Since 2010, Attorney General Schneiderman has launched a multi-pronged strategy to tackle New York's constantly evolving heroin and opioid epidemic, including settlements with health insurers to remove barriers to treatment and enforce Mental Health Parity Laws; the I-STOP system, which has successfully reduced “doctor shopping” by 90%; the Community Overdose Prevention program, equipping law enforcement with naloxone; and more.
The charges against the remaining defendants are accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.
Several additional agencies participated in the investigation, including the New York State Police, Onondaga County District Attorney's Office, Onondaga County Probation Department, New York State Division of Parole, the United States Marshals Service, and the New York National Guard Counterdrug Task Force.
The investigation was conducted by OCTF Investigator Tim MacConaghy under the supervision of Supervising Investigator Thomas M. Wolf and Deputy Chief Eugene Black, in conjunction with Syracuse Police Gang Violence Task Force Detective Mamoun Abraham, under the supervision of Sergeant David Procopio, Captain Richard Trudell and Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler. The Attorney General’s Investigations Bureau is led by Chief Investigator Dominick Zarrella.
The case is being prosecuted by OCTF Assistant Deputy Attorney General Geoffrey Ciereck, under the supervision of Deputy Attorney General Peri Alyse Kadanoff, who runs the Organized Crime Task Force, and Upstate OCTF Deputy Chief Maria Moran.