Heroin and cocaine were stashed in plain sight when Lackawanna cops kicked in the door at 47 Colton Avenue—Jerry Rolon-Alvarez, 37, was caught red-handed on a bed in the living room as officers uncovered a full drug operation in his apartment. The raid, executed November 29, 2014, by the Lackawanna and Buffalo Police Departments, revealed a cache of narcotics, cash, and tools of the trade, sealing Rolon-Alvarez’s fate behind bars.
Inside a kitchen cabinet, investigators pulled out a large plastic bag of suspected cocaine. Nearby, two plastic wraps loaded with suspected heroin were found. But the smoking gun came from Rolon-Alvarez’s own jacket—tucked inside a pocket was a box of green glassine envelopes smeared with heroin residue, along with a digital scale caked in the same powder. The unmistakable setup screamed one thing: distribution.
Rolon-Alvarez didn’t walk out with his hands empty—$2,280 in U.S. currency was seized directly from his pants, cash consistent with street-level drug proceeds. With the evidence piling up in real time, Lackawanna Police took him into custody on the spot, kicking off a federal case that would land him in front of Chief U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr.
Convicted on federal charges of possession with intent to distribute both cocaine and heroin, Rolon-Alvarez was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison by Judge Geraci. The penalty, handed down by Acting U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr., marks the end of the line for a man who turned his apartment into a narcotics depot.
The takedown was the result of a joint investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Special Agent-in-Charge Adam S. Cohen, working in lockstep with the Buffalo Police Department, directed by Commissioner Daniel Derenda, and the Lackawanna Police Department, helmed by Chief James L. Michel. Task force coordination turned a local tip into a textbook drug bust.
Assistant U.S. Attorney George C. Burgasser, who prosecuted the case, emphasized the dangers of street-level drug operations feeding addiction and violence in Western New York. Rolon-Alvarez’s conviction sends a message: even small-scale distributors will face federal time when caught moving poison through the community.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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