13614: White: Re: 13464: Mitton: Haitian Drug Ring Leader Arrested (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tim White <timwhite@rockisland.com>

from: Tim White timwhite@rockisland.com

19 people selling five kilograms of cocaine per week for two years. Accused
ringleader Sejour allegedly making at least $6.5 million in two years.
What's wrong with this picture?
Do the math; be optimistic for the accused:
5 kilos X 100 weeks = 500 kilos = 500,000 grams
1 gram wholesale (half of $100/g retail) in Long Island =  $50
Total gross receipts = $25,000,000
Expenses:
Cocaine (500 kilos from Haiti COD Long Island @ $20/g) = $10,000,000
Handling, Marketing, Security costs@ $10/g = $5,000,000
Total Expenses =$15,000,000
Net Profit =$10,000,000
Divided among 19 people = $525,000 each, or $260,000 per year each
NOT $6.5 million for one player.
>From a dealer's point of view, these numbers are generously optimistic, no?
If guilty, these are not big fish; they are independent opportunists working
a niche market, and failing.
Concentrating DEA investigative resources on such rogue independents, and
publicizing their arrest & trial, serves the institutional import and
distribution network very well.
Is lack of payoffs to corrupted authorities the crime that matters here?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Corbett" <corbetre@webster.edu>
To: "Haiti mailing list" <haiti@lists.webster.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 2:44 p
Subject: 13464: Mitton: Haitian Drug Ring Leader Arrested (fwd)


>
> 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
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>