AGENTS SAY GRANDMA'S 'COOKIES' WERE CRACK

Grandma had a special cookie recipe, according to federal agents.

Investigators caught 77-year-old Nancy "Grandma" Booth repeatedly in
wiretapped phone calls making crack cocaine sales from her Utica home,
according to the FBI.

Booth was among 26 people arrested Tuesday on charges of running a massive
crack cocaine-trafficking ring in the Rome and Utica areas for the past two
years. One defendant is from Syracuse, two are from Canastota in Madison
County and the rest from Oneida County.

Booth appeared in court Tuesday afternoon wearing bright pink slippers and
a multicolored housecoat and walking gingerly with a cane. She and the
other defendants were in court for their initial court appearance before
U.S. Magistrate George Lowe.

In the wiretapped calls, Booth refers to eight-balls, or eight-ounce chunks
of crack, as "cookies," according to a federal prosecutor.

In a wiretapped call on June 17, "Grandma asked Ian to bring a cookie to
her house for her nephew," according to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent
Anthony Fitzgerald.

"Ian told Grandma he was five minutes away," Fitzgerald

wrote. "Grandma asked him to hurry because her nephew had someone waiting
for it."

In the conversation, Booth was telling her accomplice, James "Yellow" Bell,
29, of Utica, that she had a drug customer who was in a hurry to get his
drugs, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher.

The group called itself "Shower Posse" and its members had nicknames such
as "Pops," "Bo Peep," and "Peaches," according to federal investigators.
Agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimate the group sold
at least four pounds of crack a month for at least the past two years,
Fletcher said.

Booth isn't the first older person charged in a drug conspiracy. Unlike
some who are arrested because they let drug dealers use their homes or
phones, Booth was a mid-level dealer herself, Fletcher said.

"She's all over the wiretap buying crack," Fletcher said. "She's calling
constantly, making sales."

Arrested

The local defendants include: [Extensive list redacted]