Tonawanda Man Sentenced on Drug and Arson Charges
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 25, 2012 |
BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Raymond Hutchins, 32, of Tonawanda, N.Y., who was convicted of cocaine trafficking, was sentenced five years in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. McCabe, from 2007 to 2009, Hutchins was involved in a drug trafficking organization in Niagara and Northern Erie Counties along with two co-defendants, Anthony Lamarand and Keith Simmons. Hutchins was also sentenced for his involvement in an arson of a car owned by a rival drug dealer on May 23, 2008 on Niagara Falls Boulevard in the City of Niagara Falls.
Anthony Lamarand and Keith Simmons have both been convicted of conspiring to distribute cocaine and are awaiting sentencing before Judge Arcara.
The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Piehota; the Niagara County Drug Task Force, under the direction of Sheriff James Votour; the Niagara Falls Police Department, under the direction of Chief John Chella; and the Amherst Police Department, under the direction of Chief John Askey.