STAFF REPORTS
BUFFALO — U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced today that Jose Feliciano-Miranda, 37, of Buffalo, who was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, heroin and cocaine, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, was sentenced to 147 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott S. Allen, Jr., and Wei Xiang, who handled the case, stated that between April 2015 and April 2016, Feliciano-Miranda assisted co-defendant Manuel Freire who coordinated the receipt, and subsequent distribution, of wholesale quantities of heroin and cocaine in Buffalo from sources in Puerto Rico and New York City.
On April 24, 2015, federal law enforcement officers intercepted a parcel mailed from Puerto Rico destined for a residence on Hudson Street in Buffalo. A half a kilogram of cocaine was hidden in speakers contained in the parcel. Two other co-conspirators, who, at Freire’s direction, went to retrieve the parcel, were arrested.
In early 2016, Feliciano-Miranda and Freire began selling heroin out of 247 Niagara Street in Buffalo. On April 1, 2016, law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at that property. During the search of Feliciano-Miranda’s Jeep Cherokee, law enforcement officials discovered a “trap,” a hydraulic powered concealment chamber that can only be opened after several sequential steps, which drug traffickers use to conceal quantities of contraband when traveling long distances.
Another search warrant was executed at a residence on Byrd Way, which led to the recovery of a loaded firearm.
Manuel Freire has been convicted and is awaiting sentencing.
The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Buffalo Police Department, under the direction of Acting Commissioner Byron Lockwood; the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge James J. Hunt, New York Field Division; the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, under the direction of Timothy Howard; the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Kevin P. Lyons; and the United States Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Boston Division Acting Inspector-in-Charge Raymond Moss.
