Reply With QuoteI thought there was no crime in the suburbs.
Suburban drug dealer operated out of Clarence home, Transit Road plaza
James Williams was all about customer service.
He always made sure his customers got what they wanted — whether they went to his Clarence home, he went to them, or they met in a nearby strip mall parking lot.
The problem, though, is that he was selling cocaine and other drugs, federal authorities allege.
His customers included a snowplow driver for the state, a clothing store owner and several lower-level drug dealers who apparently appreciated his version of drive-up service.
Williams was one of the main targets when 216 law enforcement officers rounded up 36 people in predawn raids Thursday. The drug ring, based in the Amherst area, focused primarily on the Northtowns and Niagara County, authorities said.
If those arrested are convicted as charged, they face up to 20 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
“The customers were people from all walks of life in the suburbs. We’ve known for a long time that there are people in the suburbs who buy and use drugs, and this case further confirmed it,” said Nancy M. Cote, resident agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in Buffalo.
Though the driveway and garage at his leased home on Greiner Road are filled with vehicles, Williams used rentals — favoring a particular make and model of sport utility vehicle — when he took his business on the road, authorities said.
He was a fixture on weekends in the parking lot of East Gate Plaza, a busy Transit Road strip mall that is home to a Wal-Mart, BJ’s Wholesale Club and Dick’s Sporting Goods, around the corner from where he lived, they said. That location made it easy for him to make a quick trip home if he needed more drugs.
Federal agents were listening in on Williams’ cell phone as he agreed to meet customers in the parking lot.
“Mr. Williams would pull in, [and] there already would be four or five people waiting,” Cote said at a news conference in the U.S. attorney’s office. “He would go up to their cars and give them the drugs.”
Families would be walking by, going shopping, as the drug deals occurred, authorities say.
Williams also sold cocaine from his home and made deliveries farther afield when necessary, they added.
According to police, one customer was a snowplow and dump truck driver for the state Department of Transportation. One day last winter, while the driver was on the job, investigators watched a meeting in a park-and-ride lot off the Thruway near Transit Road.
“He was hauling snow in his dump truck that day and buying a different kind of snow from his dealer,” one police official said.
Since December, Williams has shared the Greiner Road home with his girlfriend and several children. Williams reportedly told his landlord that he worked in maintenance.
The landlord, Shahdad P. Waseh, expressed surprise at the bust Thursday.
“I’m stunned,” said Waseh, who lives a few doors away. “I never noticed anything unusual. He always pays his rent on time. You can’t trust anyone these days.”
The yearlong police investigation that snared Williams started in Niagara County with a different target.
The Niagara County Drug Task Force was focusing on Melinda Donovan, a Lockport clothing store owner who lives on North French Road in Amherst. Her home was among the four searched Thursday.
“We discovered that many of the people lived in Amherst and also were selling in the Amherst area,” Cote said.
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/309536.html
People who wonder if the glass is half empty or full miss the point. The glass is refillable.
I thought there was no crime in the suburbs.
Americans don't solve social problems...they just move away from them
The war on drugs ruins lives and puts a tremendous, useless burden on taxpayers. If you want to save people from themselves, do volunteer work.
The path is clear
Though no eyes can see
The course laid down long before.
And so with gods and men
The sheep remain inside their pen,
Though many times they've seen the way to leave.
Imagine if instead of spending money on chasing down and then incarcerating drug addicts we spent that money on research into addiction to find possible cures.
Imagine if addicts did not have to steal to get money for their high priced addiction.
Imagine how legal drugs could actually be regulated and made safer (and taxed)
Oh well I guess our current system of putting all that drug money into the hands of street thugs (not to mention the Taliban) is better.
Americans don't solve social problems...they just move away from them
It's really not about the drugs. It's about controlling peoples thoughts. I was a teenager in the late 60s and saw the progression.
Two times in my life marijuana was viewed as being fairly harmless.
The first was in the 70s. The next thing we knew, we were in a PCP scourge. PCP was an illegal drug. PCP was bad. Marijuana was an illegal drug, hence marijuana was bad.
It's too late tonight for me to look it up (and hopefully it has not been deleted from SUWNY) but one of the contaminants found on the Lake Ontario Ordinance Works (LOOW) site (controlled by the US Government) was PCP.
The second time that marijuana was looked at as maybe not that bad was in the 80s. Next thing we see was a cocaine/crack scourge, Air America, Iran Contra, Oliver North, Mena Airport and all that.
Cocaine is a bad drug, too. So let's kick ass on those mellow pot smokers.
I haven't touched it in many (15+) years, but that's a function of my getting older.
You don't see people smoking a joint and go out itching for a fight (like you do with booze).
You don't see people smoking a joint and driving 120 MPH on the Scajaquada like they do after they have 17 beers.
(My favorite bumper sticker EVER read: "Slam On Your Brakes If You're Stoned")
I like a drink or three when it's appropriate. I sure as HELL like my Marlboro Menthols because besides being food, they piss off the politically correct.
In my (way) younger days there was nothing like a good Michouacan joint. Today it would cause me to roll up into a paranoid quivering ball. That's no reason for it to be forbidden for others. Just don't drive.
Nobody cares if people sells drugs in the suburbs, everybody goes to work and is nice, they keep up the nice lawns and love their kids.
This is the hypocrisy of the police department and local media.
Drugs are sold and used by many people from all over, but 95% of the time on the local news we see only inner city drug bust and the perception that only blacks sell and used drugs are perpetuated to local news watchers.
People who got money who work everday, can cover up their illegal activites so easy especially in the suburbs. There should be more under cover narcotics police work done there.
An old hippie friend of mine likes to say "everyone smokes weed." While, of course, that's not true, most people would be surprised to find out how many people actually smoke marijuana. There's a lot more than you think and it's not just college-aged stoners or musicians or artist types. Bankers, lawyers, public officials, stay at home moms, police officers, NASCAR dads, grandpas and even priests. There's a lot of pot smokers out there. More than you would think exists.
One beautiful thing about having a government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations is that every disaster is measured in terms of economic loss. It's sort of like getting your arm sheared off in a car accident and thinking, "Damn, now it'll take longer to fold the laundry" as blood spurts from your arteries. - The Rude Pundit
They had a special on HBO awhile back that showed how many professional used cocaine and crack cocaine when they conducted a sting operation where they would come to the "hood" to buy drugs because nobody they knew would recognize them there. .
From the housewife to the delivery guy, from the firemen to the banker they were all getting busted.
Why don't we see that on the local news, there is a diversity of people in rehab institutions, but the diversity is seldom shown on the news?
I couldn't agree with you more on this one The prevailing mentality in Buffalo's suburbs is so damned snotty and two-faced that to maintain their "untarnished" and "safe" image, the governments and "fine citizens" of Amherst, Williamsville would NEVER allow their true face to publicizedOriginally Posted by Bringthetruth
There's too much investment money at stake in the
burbs, not to mention the obscenely-priced houses
Yes, there was an article on suburban high school kids abusing pain killers, but that was a relative "slap on the wrist" compared to the daily news of the "crime wave" in the City of Buffalo
IDEALLY, the huge number of crimes in suburbia would be reported no differently than those in Buffalo, but if anyone's noticed:
Serious crimes in the suburbs ONLY makes the news when the story is so big, it can't be "hidden" or "supressed" by those calling the shots in the burbs
Course' there's plenty of violent crimes and drug abuse plus an incredible amount of white-collar crimes in the sacred suburbs, but never expect the ugly side of the burbs to EVER make the TV or print news.
Honestly, I'm ALMOST shocked that this drug bust made the news as did the Asian massage parlor scandal.
Suburban government:Police and town boards have usually kept a nice BS "squeaky clean" image in the news
Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys.
Emma Bull
Oh no you mean there were drug dealers in Western NY I guess the NARCs don't care about the tons of drugs that are sold daily in the open at Tim Hortons, 7-11's, practically every store in the area. If you have not guessed what drugs I am talking about how about coffee, tea, chocolate, all the "energy drinks", cigarettes, and alcohol.
Or what about the hard drug dealers that are in almost every town known as pharmacies like Wal-mart, Riteaid, Wallgreens. That deal out really hard drugs like Cocaine, Morphine, Vicodine, Valium, Tylenol 3 with codeine, percocet, and a whole galaxy of uppers, downers, screamers, laughers.
Oh yea the NARCs will not go after those places because they have paid the protection money to the gang that controls that turf (the gang is the bunch of thugs calling themselves the US government). The "busts" are nothing more then a way to make the people who live in the area that that gang calls their turf or jurisdiction fear the gang again. Also unlike the "cripts", "bloods", and the newly feared "MS-13" you cannot fight back and defend yourself from the "G-man" gang because they say they are "Serving and Protecting". Which I cannot figure out how they are serving me by taking neighbors that harmed no one throwing them in to a concrete and iron cage and forcing me to pay to keep those people in that cage.
If you walk around in a forest with your eyes closed you will eventually walk in to a tree.
2 + 2 = 5
Jesus died for your sins I do it for your mere entertainment dollar (Doug Stanhope)
And we've been blaming WalMart for all that traffic along that stretch of Transit.
Next we’ll come to find there are special powderd doughnuts being sold at the Tim Hortons drive thrus causing the long lines.And we've been blaming WalMart for all that traffic along that stretch of Transit.
People in the suburbs are selling drugs More than you know.
They hide behind their beautiful mowed lawns and new vehicles and put their kids up in the best schools and go to work everyday.
What are the called....The good neighborhood drug dealer!
We discovered that many of the people lived in Amherst and also were selling in the Amherst area,” Cote said.
saying "I thought only the CITY had crime" is like saying "oh gee, I thought only SMOKERS got lung cancer!"
The truth from a troll is still the truth.
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