Drug Task Force Investigation Results In The Arrest Of Seventeen

New York State Attorney General Spitzer and Cayuga County District Attorney James B. Vargason announced today that a Cayuga County Grand Jury has handed up a multi-count indictment charging five Central New York residents with possession and sale of LSD and conspiracy. Evidence developed in the investigation also resulted in the arrest today of twelve additional individuals on drug related charges.

Charged under the indictment were Gabriel Hanna, Robert Butters, Richard Hill, Robert Dubray, and Timothy Broughton. The charges stem from a joint, sixteen-month investigation by the New York State Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force, Auburn Police Department, Cayuga County Sheriff’s Department, Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department, New York State Police, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshall’s Service, and Ithaca Police Department.

It is alleged that since July 1999, these defendants collectively came into possession of and sold thousands of dosages of LSD in Cayuga and Tompkins counties. If convicted of the most serious charges against them, Gabriel Hanna and Robert Butters could face life in prison; defendants Hill, Broughton, and Dubray could face up to 25 years in prison.

During the course of the investigation, police recovered several hundred dosages of LSD and Liquid LSD capable of producing several hundred more dosages. Also seized were more than three pounds of marijuana, and over $10,000 cash.

The investigation was led by Captain Brian Neagle of the Finger Lakes Drug Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Deputy Attorney General James J. Mindell of the New York State Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force’s Syracuse Office, and First Assistant District Attorney John Budelmann of the Cayuga County District Attorney’s Office.

Evidence developed during the investigation also resulted in the arrest today of: Kristopher Dry; Jason Lovejoy; William Murray; John Raymond; Randy Reeves; Becki Shafer; Chuck Short; Steven Short; Sara Stamp; Christopher Turo; Donald Wilson; and Joseph Zirbel.