13464: Mitton: Haitian Drug Ring Leader Arrested (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Edeline Mitton <mittone@hotmail.com>



>19 Arrested in Drug Ring
>By Robert E. Kessler
>Staff Writer, Newsday
>
>October 24, 2002
>
>A Long Island drug ring that included a luxury car dealer from Great Neck,
>the co-owner of a Garden City gym and the owner of a Westbury cell phone
>business has been broken up, officials said yesterday.
>
>The 19 ring members arrested yesterday formed a complete network on Long
>Island that distributed five kilograms of cocaine per week for two years
>and included smugglers, distributors and a money launderer, according to
>U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf.
>
>The ring also included people who provided cell phones and the identity
>information of real people so the cell phones the ring used could be
>registered to legitimate individuals, Mauskopf said. The identifications
>were allegedly obtained by a Freeport village employee who used a village
>computer to access them.
>
>The case stemmed from investigations by several state and federal
>agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Nassau
>County Police Department, which were eventually combined, officials said.
>
>The leader of the ring was identified as Marcel Sejour, 29, of Uniondale,
>who officials said boasted on wiretapped conversations that he was working
>with unidentified government and military officials in Haiti. The
>officials ripped off Haitian drug dealers and then helped smuggle the
>drugs from Haiti to Long Island, Sejour claimed. No Haitian officials were
>named in the indictment yesterday, but officials said the investigation
>was continuing.
>
>Sejour, a Haitian native who allegedly made at least $6.5 million selling
>cocaine on Long Island in the past two years, used his mother, Enouse
>Pierre, who was also arrested, to help launder some of those proceeds,
>officials said.
>
>Pierre, 53, of Uniondale, and other members purchased a number of Mercedes
>from Shahram Zarnighian, who owns a half-interest in the Royal Palace of
>Great Neck, a car dealership at 105 Northern Blvd., officials said.
>
>In addition to charging Zarnighian with money laundering, federal
>prosecutors moved to seize his part in the dealership and his home at 8
>Hickory Dr., Old Brookville. The phone at the dealership was not answered
>yesterday.
>
>Also arrested yesterday were Gene Seymour, 35, of Elmont, co-owner of the
>Powerhouse Gym at 635 South St., Garden City; Jeune Benoit, 30, owner of
>Benoit Communications, 1007 Prospect Ave., Westbury; and Erwin Francois,
>27, of Freeport, a payroll administrator for Freeport village. Officials
>said Seymour's gym served as a distribution center for the ring, and
>Benoit supplied cell phones.
>
>Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Driscoll said 16 of the suspects were
>arraigned late yesterday in federal District Courts in Central Islip and
>Brooklyn and held without bail on various charges that could lead to up to
>life in prison upon conviction. Their lawyers could not be reached.
>Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.
>www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland
>
>
>