Source: US FBI
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced that JAHREEK BUSH was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas to 117 months in prison for trafficking fentanyl and cocaine while armed with a loaded firearm. BUSH was previously convicted, following a five-day jury trial, of six counts of distributing or possessing with intent to distribute narcotics and one count of carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.
“Jahreek Bush dealt highly dangerous drugs, including fentanyl that he falsely branded as heroin, and he illegally carried a loaded gun while doing so,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Armed drug traffickers fuel violence and overdoses in our communities. This Office and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to bring to justice those who put innocent lives at risk.”
According to allegations contained in the Superseding Indictment, the evidence offered at trial, and matters included in public filings:
From January through April 2023, BUSH sold cocaine and fentanyl—which BUSH falsely billed as heroin—in Monticello, New York. On April 25, 2023, as BUSH arrived at a parking lot in Monticello for a drug deal, BUSH was arrested by officers from the New York State Police and the Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office. At the time of his arrest, BUSH was wearing a fanny pack containing a loaded 9-millimeter semi‑automatic handgun, more than 100 individually wrapped packages containing fentanyl, and plastic bags containing additional fentanyl and cocaine. Images of the handgun and packages are shown below.
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In addition to the prison term, BUSH, 29, of Monticello, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force, the New York State Police, and the Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office in connection with this investigation.
The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Margaret Vasu, Benjamin Levander, and Courtney Heavey are in charge of the prosecution.