DOJ Seal

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney's Office
Western District of New York

For Immediate Release

Monday, December 9, 2013
William J. Hochul, Jr.
, United States Attorney
Contact: Barbara Burns

Rochester Woman Sentenced to Federal Prison for Drug Trafficking and Firearms Charges

ROCHESTER, N.Y.-- U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Tina Holley, 36, of Rochester, NY, who previously plead guilty to conspiracy to possess crack cocaine with the intent to distribute it and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes, was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years’ supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge David G. Larimer. Holley was also ordered to pay a $3,367.00 fine and a $200 Special Penalty Assessment.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Craig Gestring and Charles E. Moynihan, who handled the case, stated that Holley was arrested when members of the Greater Rochester Area Narcotics Enforcement Team executed two narcotics search warrants at 399 Lake Avenue on April 6, 2010. Upon entering the location, officers encountered and arrested the co-defendant, Warren Love, at the threshold of the rear first floor apartment.  Holley was not there at the time.

In searching the rear first floor apartment, law enforcement officers located and seized over nineteen grams of crack cocaine which was in the process of being packaged for street level sale. Officers also located paraphernalia associated with drug trafficking, including digital scales and glassine zip lock bags. In addition to these items, law enforcement officers located and seized two bullet proof vests and two handguns, one of which was loaded with ten rounds of ammunition.

In searching the rear second floor apartment, officers also located a sophisticated surveillance system which showed the area outside of 399 Lake Avenue through the use of strategically mounted surveillance cameras. Officers located, in the same apartment, paraphernalia related to drug trafficking, as well as a loaded 40 caliber rifle which was underneath a sofa. Finally, officers found Holley’s daughter playing with Love’s son in the living room in which they found the loaded rifle.

Holley was arrested several months later in Madison, Wisconsin, after a United States grand jury had returned an indictment charging Holley and Love with drug trafficking and related firearms offenses.

These convictions in federal court resulted from an investigation on the part of the Greater Rochester Area Narcotics Enforcement Team composed of law enforcement personnel from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under the direction of Resident Agent in Charge Scott Heagney, the Rochester Police Department, under the direction of Chief James M. Sheppard and Irondequoit Police Department, under the direction of Richard Boyan.

###

New York Field Division