Six individuals face up to life in prison following their arrest for allegedly participating in a drug conspiracy that distributed large amounts of cocaine and fentanyl in the city of Peekskill.
The announcement was made today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, three days after several police raids in the state on Tuesday, including four in Peekskill.
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and James Dennehy, Assistant Director in charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced the names of those six individuals in a press release.
Defendants include Peekskill residents Jason Tinsley (AKA “Floss), 42, Jerome Reed (AKA “Pops”), 35, Gary Burkett, 62, and Meisha Cato, 37, and Brooklyn residents Rakim Mayo (AKA “Bo”) 35, and Thomas Ryan, 43.
“The defendants participated in a conspiracy to flood the streets of Peekskill with cocaine, crack, and fentanyl,” Williams said. “They allegedly operated throughout the City of Peekskill, on the street and in public housing complexes, disrupting people’s everyday lives and brazenly infesting the streets and residential buildings of Peekskill with dangerous drugs while they sought to get rich.”
The defendants were arrested and arraigned Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Krause, with the case assigned to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas.
“These six defendants allegedly organized a regional narcotics trade to supply significant amounts of highly addictive drugs, including cocaine and fentanyl, through various personal and intermediary transactions,” Dennehy said. “The alleged conspiracy operated on the streets and within local residential complexes, putting the wellbeing and safety of residents at risk through the increased presence of illegal drugs.”
Lamar Kingwood, who Peekskill Police Chief said was arrested in the drug raids on Tuesday, was not listed as one of the six arrested, but was charged with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, Yorktown Police announced today.
According to the indictment that was unsealed in White Plains federal court and statements made in court proceedings, the six defendants supplied narcotics in Peekskill from roughly April 2024 until their arrests this week.
They allegedly supplied and distributed large amounts of primarily cocaine, crack cocaine, and fentanyl, along with methamphetamine and other narcotics. They operated out of multiple residential buildings, including Peekskill’s Bohlmann Towers and Dunbar Heights public housing complexes, actively selling drugs everyday themselves and through street sellers and couriers, the release said.
The FBI, City of Peekskill Police Department, the Westchester County Police Department, and other members of the FBI’s Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force and its partners also executed multiple search warrants in Brooklyn and New Jersey on Tuesday.
In all those searches, law enforcement reportedly discovered multiple kilograms of methamphetamine and crack cocaine, PCP, multiple firearms and rounds of ammunition, and over $100,000 of cash and jewelry.
Williams commended the work of those agencies, as well as the Drug Enforcement Administration, Yorktown Police Department, New York City Police Department, and the New York State Police.
The six defendants are charged with narcotics conspiracy and face a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. Their case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Brooke in charge of the prosecution.
All charges from the Indictment are considered merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Peekskill arrests
Several defendants of the drug raid may be familiar names to Peekskill residents.
Jason Tinsley, AKA “Floss,” 42, of Peekskill, was awaiting a sentence on a gun charge just before he was arrested. In 2020, Joseph McGann, a Task Force Officer with the Federal Bureau of Investigation sought to prosecute Tinsley for discharging a semi-automatic firearm. Tinsley also had a prior manslaughter conviction and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third-degree conviction both in 2004.
There apparently was another crime committed, according to a police report filed by a Thornwood resident Mike Monaco who told the Herald there was an incident last December in which Tinsley allegedly attempted to rob Monaco’s friend and assaulted them in Peekskill.
Monaco claimed after having dinner with a friend, Tinsley attempted to take his friend’s Rolex watch. Monaco said while attempting to prevent the theft, four people who were with Tinsley allegedly knocked him down and he was forced to defend himself.
“He told me and my friend, ‘You’re going to get murdered tonight,’” Monaco alleged.
A police report shown to the Herald by Monaco characterized the report as an altercation with an injured male. Prosecution was declined and the case was closed.
Jerome Reed, AKA “POPS,” 35, of Peekskill, was also charged with committing narcotic offenses in Peekskill back in 2016. He also faced felony counts of drug possession, drug sales, and criminal possession of a weapon back in 2013. More recently was charged with eluding New Jersey State Police after a crash at a marsh last year.
Gary Burkett, 62, of Peekskill was arrested in April and arraigned on criminal sale of a controlled substance and intent to sell crack. His next appearance for those charges is on Jan. 6 at Peekskill City Court.
Lamar Kingwood, who was not one of the six defendants named by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, also faced five and a half years in prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substance in 2014.
