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Operation Bricktown: A.G. Schneiderman, Syracuse Police Chief Fowler Announce Takedown Of Violent Syracuse Gang Responsible for Trafficking Heroin and Cocaine Throughout Central New York

52 People Indicted And Charged With 370 Crimes,  Part Of AG’s And Syracuse PD’s Narcotics Sweep; Dozens Of Alleged Heroin And Cocaine Dealers Arrested

Several Individuals Also Charged With Conspiracy To Murder Rivals; Investigation Thwarted Numerous Attempts By Defendants To Engage In Shootings

SYRACUSE – Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, Syracuse Mayor Stephanie A. Miner and Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler today announced the indictment of a total of 52 people, including many charged with operating a drug trafficking ring that transported heroin and cocaine throughout Onondaga, Oswego, Madison, Cortland, and St. Lawrence Counties; as well as two groups of individuals within this ring who are alleged to have conspired to murder their rivals.

Approximately 30 individuals indicted today are alleged to be members of the Bricktown Gang, which is alleged to be responsible for a significant amount of violence and drugs on Syracuse streets. The remaining individuals indicted today include both alleged narcotics suppliers and customers who are resellers, as well as alleged members of a rival gang.

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman

The indictments are the result of the Attorney General’s and Syracuse Police Department’s joint investigation, “Operation Bricktown.” The defendants were arrested yesterday and earlier today in a series of raids in the Syracuse area, as well as in Oswego, Cortland, Monroe, and Madison Counties and the states of Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

“These arrests send an unmistakable message: dealing death and violence in our communities will not be tolerated – and we will bring you to justice,” said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “Together with last summer’s Operation Smackdown – one of the biggest drug busts in Syracuse history – we’ve taken more than 120 violent drug dealers off the streets of Syracuse, making a major dent in the violent drug gangs plaguing the city. With heroin-related deaths on the rise in our communities, we are committed to partnering with local law enforcement to tackle the crisis.”

Mayor Miner

“Operation Bricktown has been a successful effort to get dangerous gangs off our streets. Our policing efforts, combined with sophisticated data and new technology, are making Syracuse a safer city,” said Syracuse Mayor Stephanie A. Miner. “I appreciate the efforts of the men and women of the Syracuse Police Department and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who made this operation possible.”

“The Syracuse Police Department enjoys a great relationship with all State, Local and Federal Agencies, and will work with them as a team to stop people intending to do harm to our community,” said Syracuse Chief of Police Frank L. Fowler.

SPD Chief, Frank Fowler

Syracuse, like a number of suburban and upstate communities, has seen a surge in heroin-related deaths in recent years. According to a Rockefeller Institute for Government report, overall deaths from drug overdoses and chronic drug abuse in New York increased 71 percent between 2010 and 2015. Operation Brickdown is the first takedown of Attorney General’s Schneiderman’s Suburban and Upstate Response to the Growing Epidemic (“S.U.R.G.E”) Initiative, a multi-pronged effort to target gangs and individuals who deal heroin and commit acts of violence in suburban and upstate communities across New York State.

These arrests follow last summer’s Operation Smackdown, which took another 72 violent alleged drug dealers off the streets of Syracuse.

Over the course of the twelve-month investigation, which was led by the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) and the Syracuse Police Department, 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

The two separate indictments charge the 52 individuals with 370 crimes, including Operating as a Major Trafficker, and various counts of Criminal Sale and Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance (class A and B felonies), and Conspiracy to commit those crimes. The Operating as a Major Trafficker statute (§220.77 of the Penal Law of the State of New York), authored by Attorney General Schneiderman when he was a State Senator, went into effect in November 2009, as part of reforms to the Rockefeller-era drug laws. It is the only felony narcotics charge in the state that carries a possible life sentence.

In addition to the 49 individuals facing narcotics charges, two sets of individuals are also charged with Conspiracy to murder rivals.

In the first set of individuals, five alleged Bricktown gang members (who are also facing the narcotics charges) are accused of conspiring to murder a group of rival gang members in the City of Syracuse. Among other details included in the indictment, a member of this group allegedly declared that “it’s war time” against their rivals.

Click here to read the first indictment.

A second indictment details a second set of four other individuals (who are not alleged to be members of the Bricktown gang) are accused of conspiring to murder their rival as part of an ongoing dispute. Among other details included in the indictment, this group allegedly threw a number of loaded guns out their car window while being pursued by police.

Click here to read the second indictment.

Due directly to the Operation Bricktown investigation, law enforcement was able to thwart several planned shootings in Syracuse last year.

The 52 individuals charged in today’s two indictments include:

  • KELLY BABBITT, 24, of Cortland, New York
  • RASUE “SUE” BARNETT, 37, of Syracuse, New York
  • BISHOP BLACK, 25, of Syracuse, New York
  • DELAUGHN BROWN, 19, of Syracuse, New York
  • PAUL BROWN, 31, of Fulton, New York
  • RASHAWN BROWN, 28, of Syracuse, New York
  • TONETTE BUTLER, 35, of Baldwinsville, New York (Charged with Conspiracy to murder)
  • CHRISTOPHER “HEAVY” CALDWELL, 27, of Syracuse, New York
  • DEVON CHRISTMAN, 28, of Florida
  • ARTEL “QUEEZ” CLARKE, 29, of Syracuse, New York
  • WILFORD “HOFFA” CLARKE, 35, of Syracuse, New York
  • KHALIL DAVIS, 19, of Syracuse, New York
  • KIVON “KILO” DAVIS, 25, of Syracuse, New York
  • FANIEL DENIS, 35, of Oneida, New York and Miami, Florida
  • SAVON “SAY BOOG” ELLICK-SANDERS, 22, of Syracuse, New York
  • DAVID “NECK” FLOYD, 29, of Syracuse, New York
  • LYNARD “LARGE” FUNDERBURG, 26, of Syracuse, New York
  • RAYMOND HARRIS, 33, of Syracuse, New York
  • JOSHUA “HOOD” HESTER, 26, of Syracuse, New York
  • JOHN HORTON, 25, of Liverpool, New York
  • SHANTAJAH HUNTER, 25, of Syracuse, New York
  • MATTHEW HUTCHINS, 36, of Fulton, New York
  • QUINCY “FAT BOY” JONES, 25, of Syracuse, New York
  • MICHAEL KAIGLER, 36, of Liverpool, New York
  • JAMES KELLEY, 28, of Liverpool, New York
  • TERRENCE KILMER, 56, of Port Byron, New York
  • EMERSON KINSEY, 29, of Syracuse, New York
  • SHAKEEM “JIG” KITCHEN, 27, of Syracuse, New York
  • ANTWAN LOCKHART, 31, of Oneida, New York (Charged with Operating as a Major Trafficker)
  • NIHEIM “BOO BOO” MARTIN, 19, of Syracuse, New York
  • ASIAN “ACE” MCARTHUR, 28, of Syracuse, New York (Charged with Conspiracy to murder)
  • ANTWAN MCGEE, 32, of Syracuse, New York
  • GARY MOORE, 48, of Hastings, New York
  • MICHAEL “MITCH” MORGAN, 27, of Syracuse, New York
  • MATTHEW MULDOON, 52, of Oswego, New York
  • MICHAEL “MI” MYERS, 31, of Syracuse, New York
  • KAMAR “JUNGLE” PARKE, 28, of Syracuse, New York (Charged with Conspiracy to murder)
  • JOSHUA POOLE, 23, of Cortland, New York
  • WILLIAM POOLE, 33, of Syracuse, New York (Charged with Operating as a Major Trafficker)
  • REGGIE ROBINSON, 33, of Syracuse, New York
  • YANIRA RODRIGUEZ, 35, of New York, New York
  • KENDRICK ROWSER, 27, of Syracuse, New York
  • MIQUAN “BUB” RUSSO, 26, of Syracuse, New York
  • CHARLES SCOTT, 27, of Syracuse, New York
  • LACY SELLERS, 26, of Syracuse, New York
  • KHARIF STRANGE, 22, of Syracuse, New York
  • DAQUAN “KISS” SULLIVAN, 30, of East Syracuse, New York
  • DEMETRIUS “MEECH” SULLIVAN, 29, of East Syracuse, New York
  • DAVID “DIRT” TRAPPS, 37, of Syracuse, New York
  • TERRI TYLER, 27, of Fulton, New York
  • GLEN “ICE” WHITE, 33, of Syracuse, New York (Charged with Conspiracy to murder, as well as the narcotics charges)
  • SEAN YOUNG, 33, of Ogdensburg, New York

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.

State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II said, “I commend the outstanding work of our members and our state and local partners on this case. Thanks to this year-long collaboration, we have removed members of a violent narcotics trafficking ring from our streets. We simply will not tolerate this kind of illegal activity in any of our communities.”

The investigation was conducted by the Office of the Attorney General’s 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. 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 under the overall supervision of Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice Jason Brown.

The charges against the defendants are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.

 

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