Seven people who ran a drug trafficking ring moving fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine through Western New York have all pleaded guilty and been sentenced, with the ring's leaders facing up to 10 years in state prison. The announcement, made Tuesday, closes out a prosecution that began with a February 2025 indictment and stretched across 19 months of investigation and court proceedings.
According to NY AG James
, the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed the convictions in a statement describing the operation as a dangerous network that harmed communities across the region. A fuller account from the
Office of the New York State Attorney General
lays out the physical scale of what investigators pulled off the streets: nearly one kilogram of cocaine valued at $30,000, more than half a pound of methamphetamine worth $1,500, over an ounce of fentanyl worth $1,600, and more than $4,000 in cash.
How the Ring Moved Drugs From Buffalo to Jamestown
Court records and reporting from WJTN identified Ronnie Dupree of Buffalo as the ring's central operative. Dupree purchased narcotics from suppliers in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, then traveled with co-defendant Antwain Jackson to Jamestown to hand the product off to local dealers, according to the station's reporting.
Wiretaps authorized during the investigation captured the defendants using coded language to mask their sales, per the attorney general's office. Cocaine was referred to as “soft,” “hard,” or “girl,” fentanyl as “food” or “boy,” and methamphetamine as “cream.” The investigation drew support from the Organized Crime Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Niagara Falls Police Department, with additional operational help from the Buffalo Police Department and the New York State Army National Guard Counterdrug Task Force, the attorney general's office said.
Part of a Wider State Crackdown on Narcotics Pipelines
The Buffalo case lands just two months after a separate Western New York enforcement action in August, when the attorney general's office charged 17 individuals in a 117-count indictment for allegedly smuggling 10 kilograms of cocaine worth $500,000, along with 250 grams of fentanyl and heroin, in custom parcel boxes shipped from Puerto Rico to Buffalo and surrounding counties. That same investigation exposed an insider threat to the state's wiretap operations: a former New York State Trooper monitoring surveillance leaked confidential photos of wiretap screens to a friend, who then shared them with target suspects. The trooper was criminally convicted of attempted evidence tampering and resigned in August 2026, the attorney general's office reported.
Statewide, the Organized Crime Task Force dismantled nine gun and drug trafficking rings across 14 counties in 2024 alone, securing 62 indictments and more than 119 convictions, according to the attorney general's annual report. Hoodline has covered similar task force takedowns in recent months, including a Ulster County cocaine bust and an earlier Hudson Valley ring that distributed fentanyl and counterfeit pills.
A Regional Drug Trafficking Case
The Buffalo-to-Jamestown ring trafficked fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine through Western New York.
