N.Y.-Ohio marijuana ring broken up, authorities say

MALONE, N.Y. (AP) — Eight arrests have broken up a drug ring linked to Russian organized crime that smuggled as much as $27 million worth of marijuana through New York’s St. Regis Mohawk Reservation to the Cleveland area over the past three years, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Five of the suspects are from New York and three from Ohio. They all face felony drug charges that could bring prison sentences of eight years or longer, said Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne.

“People think this marijuana trade is no big deal. Then you see that the people making money off of this are organized crime in a major metropolitan area,” Champagne said.

Authorities said they seized $1.3 million in cash, a pound of cocaine, 14 vehicles and a boat during raids in St. Lawrence and Franklin counties along the Canadian border in New York and in Beachwood and Willoughby, Ohio.

The investigation is continuing, and Champagne said more charges will be filed against the suspects. Additional arrests also are likely, he said.

Ohio authorities were investigating money laundering by the Russian mob in suburban Cleveland and came to Champagne in 2008 after they learned the group was getting large shipments of marijuana from upstate New York.

Champagne said almost all of that smuggling comes through the St. Regis reservation, which straddles the U.S.-Canadian border and is split by the St. Lawrence River.

“We are a target rich environment. That’s the problem. It’s just one group after another,” he said.

In November, federal authorities cracked an alleged drug trafficking ring on the Canadian side of the reservation that smuggled more than 22,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States between 2005 and 2008. In December, they arrested 39 people and busted a second alleged ring operating through St. Regis.

Champagne also noted the increasing violence linked to marijuana smuggling.

During the investigation, authorities had Daniel Simonds, 27, of Stockholm, N.Y., under surveillance as a suspected drug courier.

Simonds was murdered in May 2008 during an unrelated robbery over a drug debt. Charges are pending against seven people for that killing.