BUFFALO — U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Orlando Albert-Arroyo, 28, of Buffalo, NY, who was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, heroin, was sentenced to serve 144 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua A. Violanti, who handled the case, stated that on February 27, 2019, Buffalo Police Officers responded to a drug overdose call and found a 24-year-old male deceased. The deceased man’s girlfriend told officers that the day before, she met Arroyo and co-defendant Genesis Tolentino-Cruz at a gas station in Cheektowaga to purchase heroin. Later that night, the girlfriend said that she and the deceased male used some of the heroin purchased from the defendants. The girlfriend went to sleep, and when she awoke, she found her boyfriend was deceased. In March and April, 2019, investigators conducted six controlled purchases of heroin from Arroyo and Cruz. On April 19, 2019, a federal search warrant was executed at Arroyo and Cruz’s residence, during which heroin, ammunition, a rifle, a pistol, and drug processing items were seized.
Cruz was previously convicted and sentenced to serve 120 months in prison.
The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Frank A. Tarentino III, New York Field Division, the Buffalo Police Department, under the direction of Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, and the Cheektowaga Police Department, under the direction of Chief Brian Gould.
