DA: Farmingville Woman Arraigned in Heroin-Prostitution Ring

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota provided more details Monday on a dismantled  that operated across Brookhaven Town. 

Among them: the Farmingville Kmart on North Ocean Avenue was one of the locations where the drug was sold, Spota said. 

Sandra Russell and Steven Mcdaniel, both of Coram, were identified as the ringleaders by Spota at a press conference Monday morning at Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead. Of those involved, Medford's Jahiteak Appling was identified as one of the runners.

Farmingville's Jennifer Licata, 23, was also identified as a runner, and Spota said she is separately charged with promoting prison contraband in the first degree and was found to have heroin in her possession while incarcerated in the Suffolk County jail.

"During the summer of 2011, the undercover police officers made quite a few undercover buys from Mcdaniel back last summer," Spota said. "And then in November Mcdaniel was arrested by another police agency for also selling heroin to them."

Licata pleaded not guilty Monday to nine charges and is being held on $200,000 cash bail. Eight of the charges are felonies, including criminal sale of a controlled substance and conspiracy. 

Spota said that the investigators found through a court order for wiretap surveillance that Mcdaniel had turned over the heroin and prostitution rings to Russell while he was incarcerated.

Russell was purchasing raw, uncut heroin from Taquan Rashad, of the Bronx, which Spota said was unusual for these types of deals. The cutting and packaging was either done at Russell's home or at Lee Appling's home also in Coram. The heroin was then turned over to the runners, which Licata and Appling were a part of, Spota said. 

The primary locations identified as where the heroin was sold included a  in Port Jefferson Station and a  in Farmingville, as well as several Centereach locations.

In addition to the heroin ring, Spota said that Russell was housing four prostitutes at a time.

"Most of the prostitutes ranged in age from 19 to 22, 23 years of age," Spota said. "And what she was doing in exchange for their prostitution services she was providing them with housing, clothing, food, cell phones, toiletries and what they needed absolutely the most is heroin, that's what she was paying them with for the most part."

One of the exhibits at the press conference was a record showing how much heroin a prostitute would get based on the amount of money they brought in. Spota said this started at $80, or 15 minutes or service, equaling two bags.

Spota said that all of the money and tips were turned over to Russell. Spota said the prostitutes worked out of the Comfort Inn and Gaslight Motor Inn in Medford, and the 112 Motel and American Motel in Port Jefferson Station.

Spota also said that Mcdaniel wrote a letter to Russell outlining ways to keep the prostitutes under Russell's control.

The letter, which was exhibited at the press conference, included rules such as to never trust for any of them and to "make sure you own their mind's, body's, and soul's."

In terms of cash made from this operation, Spota said that around $20,000 in profit would be made by Russell from 50 grams of heroin. On display at the press conference was around $130,000, of which $8,000 was kept in her home and the rest in safe deposit boxes. Other items found included various jewelery, Rolex watches, cell phones and an iPad.

Of those arrested, only Licata was arraigned on Monday. The rest will be arraigned on future dates, Spota said.