Buffalo Man Pleads Guilty to Cocaine Charges Stemming from L.R.G.P. Gang Investigation
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 10, 2012 |
BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Joseph Martin, 23, of Buffalo, New York, pleaded guilty plea before District Judge Richard J. Arcara to distribution of crack cocaine. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison, a $5,000,000, fine or both.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. McCabe, the guilty plea follows a lengthy investigation into the drug trafficking activities of the L.R.G.P. Gang on Buffalo’s East Side. The defendant sold crack cocaine at a residence maintained by L.R.G.P. Gang members on Memorial Drive in Buffalo’s Broadway/Fillmore area. Martin was arrested along with 14 other members and associates in January 2012. He is the first to be convicted.
The plea was the culmination of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Piehota; and the Buffalo Police Department, under the direction of Commissioner Daniel Derenda.
Sentencing is for January 11, 2013, at 1:00 p.m. before Judge Arcara.