Major Supplier of a Multi-Million Dollar Narcotics Ring In Suffolk Sentenced: DA

RIVERSIDE, NY — A Brooklyn man, who used a stash house in Ronkonkoma where he bagged dope in a drug trafficking ring that ran throughout Suffolk, was sentenced to 31 years to life in prison on Friday, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney's office said.

Prosecutors say that though Keston Braithwaite, 39, lived in New York City, he had a stash house on Southport Street in Ronkonkoma, where he routinely "bagged significant quantities of cocaine and fentanyl for local redistribution."

A search warrant executed at the house recovered over two kilograms of fentanyl, about one kilogram of cocaine, six loaded guns, significant quantities of cutting agents, packaging materials, digital scales, a money counter, and about $20,000 U.S. currency, prosecutors said.

He was a major supplier of a multi-million dollar narcotics distribution network based out of western Suffolk County between Aug. 27 to May 19, according to prosecutors.

Braithwaite was sentenced to 31 years to life because of a prior felony conviction, prosecutors said, adding that the sentence was split between 21 years to life for operating as a major drug trafficker and 10 years for criminal possession of a weapon.

The sentences are to run consecutively, meaning the total sentence is 31 years of incarceration to life imprisonment. Braithwaite received lesser sentences on his other nine convictions after trial, all of which are to run concurrently.

Braithwaite was found guilty on all eleven counts of his indictment back in July.

Tierney said Braithwaite's sentence takes into account the damage he caused in the county "by peddling these deadly drugs to vulnerable members of our community."

“Fentanyl and other dangerous and addictive drugs are a lucrative business for unscrupulous drug dealers," Tierney said. "The illegal drugs they sell not only ruin the lives and disrupt families, they kill. And that’s why if you get caught dealing these dangerous drugs in Suffolk County, we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

Patch has reached out to his attorney, Sean Dixon, of Central Islip.