Buffalo Man Sentenced on Drug Charges

BUFFALO, NY—Shawn S. Johnson, age 34, of Buffalo, New York, who pled guilty on March 18, 2009 to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base was sentenced yesterday to a term of 87 months' imprisonment in the Bureau of Prisons, three years' supervised release, and a $100 special assessment by United States District Judge William M. Skretny, U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter of the Western District of New York announced today.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas S. Duszkiewicz who handled the case, stated that the defendant was arrested on January 29, 2007, after 20 other individuals had been previously arrested by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as part of an OCDETF Operation One of a Kind. The investigation targeted individuals who were selling quantities of crack cocaine throughout the Salamanca, New York and Bradford, Pennsylvania area from June 2005 up to October 2007, which drugs were being supplied from Buffalo by Shawn Johnson and Monae Davis. AUSA Duszkiewicz stated specifically that the defendant pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute between 150 grams and up to 500 grams of crack cocaine. The investigation also resulted in various seizures of quantities of cocaine and cocaine base throughout the Southern Tier. The investigation involved multi-agency cooperation resulting from a wiretap issued in Cattaraugus County at the request of Cattaraugus District Attorney Edward M. Sharkey.

The conviction was the culmination of the investigation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Resident Agent in Charge Charles Tomaszewski with the assistance of the Southern Tier Regional Drug Task Force under the direction of State Police Senior Investigator Walter Mackney, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James Robertson, the Buffalo Police Department under the direction of Commissioner H. McCarthy Gibson and the Pennsylvania State Police Department.

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