Significant Cocaine Trafficker Responsible for Double Homicide Sentenced

          ROCHESTER, N.Y.-- U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Kevin Lamont Anderson, a/k/a "Cuda," 40, of Rochester, N.Y., who was convicted following a jury trial of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base and five kilograms or more of cocaine, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and maintaining a drug-involved premises, was sentenced to life in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa. Judge Siragusa also ordered Anderson to forfeit $1,000,000 to the United States, which the jury determined represented the amount of proceeds from the drug trafficking conspiracy.

            Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frank H. Sherman and Everardo Rodriguez, who handled the case, stated that the defendant led a group of drug dealers which distributed crack and powder cocaine between 1990 and December 2005. During this time period, the conspirators primarily utilized houses in northeast Rochester controlled by Anderson to distribute their drugs.

            Between June 2003 and January 2005, the defendant paid over $467,000 in cash to construct and furnish a house in Holley, N.Y. While the purchase and construction money came from Anderson’s drug trafficking activities, Anderson had his grandmother, Juliet Anderson, purchase the Holley residence in her name in order to conceal where the funds originated. Juliet Anderson, who was previously convicted of participating in this money laundering conspiracy, forfeited the house in Holley to the Government and was sentenced to two years probation.

            Also as part of the sentencing proceeding, the Government proved that the defendant was responsible for the double homicide in May 2002 of Clifford Robinson and Allen Tyrone Smith in Rochester. Anderson was found by Judge Siragusa to have shot both Robinson and Smith in a house located at 279 Avenue A in Rochester in furtherance of Anderson’s drug trafficking operation. With the help of several co-conspirators, the defendant placed the victims bodies in Clifford Robinson's vehicle and left the vehicle on Cutler Street in Rochester.  The police found the bodies in the parked vehicle on May 15, 2002, two days after the murders.

            “This case demonstrates the extreme violence often perpetrated by narcotics trafficking gangs,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul. “While nothing can be done to bring the victims back home to their families, at least the public can be assured that this defendant will never again walk the streets of Rochester or any other peace loving community.”

            Eight other defendants in the case have been previously sentenced for their involvement in the case.

The sentencing is the result of an investigation on the part of the Special Investigations Section of the Rochester Police Department, under the direction of Chief  James Sheppard, Special Agents of the Internal Revenue Service,  under the direction of  Special Agent-in-Charge Toni M. Weirauch, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the direction of Resident Agent in Charge Scott Heagney.