Wheatfield Business Owner Sentenced to Probation on Drug Charge
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 25, 2011 |
BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Joseph Tomasino, 45, of Tonawanda, New York, who was convicted of trafficking in cocaine, was sentenced to three years probation by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara and ordered to forfeit the sum of $25,000.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. McCabe, who handled the case, stated that Tomasino was part-owner of J.T. Wheatfield's bar and restaurant on Ward Road in Wheatfield where he stored, distributed, and used cocaine during business hours from early- to mid-2009. The defendant obtained the cocaine from Keith Simmons, the leader of a large drug-trafficking organization in the Northtowns at the time.
The pleas are the culmination of an investigation on the part of agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of James H. Roberstson, Special Agent in Charge; members of the Niagara County Drug Task Force; and police officers from the Niagara Falls Police Department, under the direction of Superintendent John Chella, and Amherst Police Department, under the direction of Chief John Askey.