Latifah Donaldson, 24, Gets Time Served for Crack House Operation

Latifah Donaldson, 24, of Buffalo, NY, allowed her apartment to become a factory for crack cocaine, funneling poison into one of the city’s most vulnerable housing complexes. Between January 2013 and April 3, 2013, the Perry Housing Projects became a hub for distribution — and Donaldson’s unit was at the center of the operation. On Wednesday, she was sentenced to time served and two years of supervised release, including six months of home detention, for maintaining a drug-involved premises.

Sixteen years after the crack epidemic first ravaged neighborhoods like hers, Donaldson helped revive its horrors from within a government-subsidized apartment. Senior U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny handed down the sentence after Donaldson pleaded guilty to one count of maintaining a drug involved premises. The charge stems from her role in a broader conspiracy prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy C. Lynch, who detailed how co-defendants used her space to cook, stash, and sell crack.

The operation exploded into public view on April 3, 2013, when federal and local agents stormed multiple locations in the Perry complex, including 124 Fulton Street and 305 Perry Street. Inside, they seized over 300 grams of cocaine base — enough to supply hundreds of street-level doses — along with 700 grams of powdered cocaine and a loaded firearm. The raid was part of a coordinated takedown that swept up Donaldson and 10 others, all of whom have since been convicted.

According to prosecutors, Donaldson’s apartment wasn’t an isolated stash house — it was one node in a network controlled by a larger drug crew that maintained multiple drug points across the housing project. The arrangement turned federally funded living spaces into criminal real estate, exploiting public trust for private profit. Investigators say the operation ran like a small-scale cartel, with division of labor, security, and distribution routes.

The case was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force, under Special Agent-in-Charge Adam S. Cohen, working alongside the New York State Police, directed by Major Steven Nigrelli, and the Buffalo Police Department, under Commissioner Daniel Derenda. The collaboration reflects the federal government’s continued push to dismantle entrenched drug operations in high-crime urban zones.

Acting U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced the sentencing outcome, underscoring that even non-leaders in drug conspiracies face serious consequences. While Donaldson avoided additional prison time, the two-year supervised release and home confinement signal that courts won’t tolerate the use of homes — especially in public housing — as launchpads for the nation’s ongoing drug crisis.