Buffalo Man Sentenced on Drug Charges
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 13, 2012 |
BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Wardell Epps, 42, of Buffalo, New York, who was convicted of using a communication facility (telephone) to facilitate a federal narcotics felony, was sentenced to 21 months in jail by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert C. Moscati, who handled the case, stated that Epps was intercepted during the execution of a court-authorized wiretap discussing and arranging illegal narcotics transactions with a co-defendant. Epps was arrested along with 19 others charged with being involved in a multi-kilogram cocaine distribution network between Buffalo, New York and Houston, Texas. To date, 18 of the 20 defendants have been convicted.
The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Piehota; the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brian R. Crowell, New York Field Division; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, under the direction of Resident Agent in Charge Frank Christiano.