Two Harrisburg Women Get Prison Sentences For Running Drug Trafficking Operation Out Of Independently Owned Restaurants

No two grandmothers are alike, so don’t believe the stereotypes.  Not everyone’s grandmother is old enough to qualify for Medicare, for example.  Some matriarchs go by Grandma, while others prefer to be called Granny, Nana, Mimi, Mammaw, or any of a host of other titles.  Definitely don’t believe the hype about grandmothers being helpless old ladies who are at the mercy of their younger relatives.  Some grandmothers are entrepreneurs in their own right.  While most of their business activities are legal, the FBI followed a suspicion that the ladies of a certain age behind several neighborhood eateries were doing more than serving omelets and pie a la mode.  If you are being accused of using your small business as a front for illegal activities such as drug trafficking, contact a Pittsburgh drug crime lawyer.

How Is Drug Trafficking Different From Other Drug Crimes?

The penalties for drug trafficking can include long prison sentences, sometimes even explicitly or implicitly including life in prison.  Therefore, in order for a jury to convict you of drug trafficking, the prosecution must do more than just prove that there were drugs in your house.  If the quantity of drugs found during a search is more than a person could reasonably keep for personal use, then the most applicable charge is possession with intent to deliver.  If it is a medium-sized amount of a controlled substance and there are no other exacerbating factors such as weapons, you might be able to get a plea deal to get the possession with intent to deliver charges reduced to simple possession.  Drug trafficking, however, requires a complex plan to buy and sell drugs and evidence of communications that serve that purpose.  The presence of accounting books, weapons, or large amounts of cash can also serve as evidence of drug trafficking.

In the News

For years, Nyree Letterlough, known as Grammie, and Saqueena Williams, known as Queenie, operated Harrisburg restaurants known as Grammie’s Grill and Queenie’s Café, respectively.  According to the Daily Voice website, Letterlough also had a partial ownership interest in Williams’s restaurant.  As early as 2012, police began to suspect that the women were dealing drugs from their restaurants, and local law enforcement worked together with the FBI on an investigation that lasted at least six years.  A 2018 search of Letterlough’s house yielded more than five kilograms of cocaine and a firearm.  Letterlough and Williams were charged with drug trafficking, and they both pleaded not guilty, resulting in one trial for both defendants.  The jury convicted them in November 2021, and in August 2022, Letterlough, 51, received a sentence of 111 months in prison.

Contact Gary E. Gerson About Drug Crimes Defense

A drug crimes defense lawyer can help you if you are facing charges for drug trafficking or another drug offense, when all you were doing was operating a legal business.  Contact the law offices of Gary E. Gerson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania about your case.

Sources:

dailyvoice.com/pennsylvania/chester/news/grammie-trafficked-cocaine-guns-through-pa-restaurants-usdoj/842111/

justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/harrisburg-restaurant-owner-sentenced-111-months-imprisonment-drug-trafficking-and