HEROIN RING BROKEN UP BY TASK FORCE

Members of a federal task force said Friday they broke up a drug ring
based on Buffalo's West Side that was distributing more than 2 pounds
of heroin a month in the city and its suburbs.

More than 150 officers from two dozen police agencies began arresting
suspects Thursday evening and Friday morning in the sweep against
what they called the Antonetty Organization.

Named for [Name redacted], the crew is alleged to have set up drug
houses on Niagara Street, Massachusetts Avenue and West Utica Street,
authorities said.

Agents led by the FBI said they hope the two-year investigation will
help control the violence that has led to a number of recent
homicides and other violence on Buffalo's West Side.

Niagara Council Member Dominic J. Bonafacio Jr. said the federal
charges should carry more of an impact than the usual arrests of drug
users who are often released soon after they charged.

Police obtained 18 arrest warrants and conducted searches on nine
residences during the raids, confiscating less than a pound of heroin
and three weapons.

U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder has detained without bail
[Name redacted], 27 [address redacted]; [Name redacted], 40, of
[address redacted].; and [Name redacted], 21, of [address redacted].

Schroeder set bail hearings for seven other suspects for Wednesday,
and investigators are still seeking several others, Assistant U.S.
Attorney Timothy C. Lynch said .

John A. Yervelli Jr., an FBI agent, said in an affidavit filed in
court that agents listened in on cell phone conversations that showed
them the organization used houses to package the drugs and sold them
from others, including 809 Niagara St., 453 West Utica St., and 44
Massachusetts Ave.

Agents used a confidential informant to make more than 20 buys of
heroin in the last several months, according to the affidavit.
Yervelli said the monitored conversations showed that only small
amounts of heroin were kept at the houses where drugs were sold to
lessen the charges if police raided them. He said the drug houses
were open seven days a week, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Agents listened in and watched, he said, as Buffalo police raided the
Niagara Street house after complaints of heavy drug sales in the area.

The investigation was conducted by the Safe Streets Task Force and
grew out of an investigation by New York State Police. The task force
is led by the FBI, and also includes the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, and Buffalo police.

Also named in the federal warrants were [Name redacted], 22, of
[address redacted].; [Name redacted], 24, of 92 Condon St.; [Name
redacted], 18, of [address redacted].; [Name redacted], 25, of
[address redacted]; and [Name redacted], 27, of [address redacted].

Also, [Name redacted], 25, of [address redacted]; [Name redacted],
24, of [address redacted]; [Name redacted], 22, of [address
redacted]; [Name redacted], 21, of [address redacted]; [Name
redacted], 38, of [address redacted], Lancaster; [Name redacted], 37,
of [address redacted], Blasdell; [Name redacted], 26, of [address
redacted]; [Name redacted], 49, of [address redacted], Lockport; and
[Name redacted], 56, of [address redacted], Dunkirk.