Crack Dealer Worked Bohlmann Towers For 15 Years

PEEKSKILL, NY — A drug dealer who stored crack in his mother's apartment in Peekskill will serve 11 years in jail, federal officials announced Monday. Edward Holliman pleaded guilty on April 24, before U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Seibel, who imposed sentence.

“Edward Holliman has been a persistent threat to the public safety of Peekskill residents and a major distributor of crack cocaine in Bohlmann Towers for the past 15 years," Police Chief Donald Halmy said. "His arrest and successful prosecution will surely serve to improve the quality of life of residents of the building. I’d like to praise the City of Peekskill detective division, FBI Safe Streets Task Force and the Office of the United States Attorney for their tireless efforts in this investigation.”

Holliman was sentenced to 135 months in prison for conspiring to distribute crack cocaine in Peekskill between 2013 and 2017.

“The malignant creep of illegal drugs and violence into the once peaceful suburbs is a major focus of our FBI Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said. "Our goal is to build strong and lasting partnerships with local law enforcement agencies like Peekskill Police to be a force multiplier, stopping the dealers and pushers from further infecting the community.”

According court filings and statements made at public court proceedings, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in the announcement:

Over the course of many years, Holliman supplied and distributed crack cocaine in and around Bohlmann Towers, a large housing project in Peekskill, New York. To facilitate his narcotics distribution business, Holliman had several “workers,” co-conspirators whom Holliman managed and supervised, and who distributed crack cocaine that Holliman supplied. Holliman used his mother’s apartment in Bohlmann Towers to store crack cocaine. During the execution of a search warrant at that apartment on the day of Holliman's arrest in October 2017, law enforcement recovered more than 50 grams of cocaine belonging to him. Between 2013 and 2017, Holliman sold and distributed between 2.8 and 8.4 kilograms of crack cocaine as part of the charged conspiracy.

In addition to the prison term, Holliman, 63, was sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $30,000.

Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Peekskill Police Department. This case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant United States Attorney Olga I. Zverovich is in charge of the prosecution.