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Five men — including the group’s alleged ringleader, 37-year-old Nicholas Andrade of White Plains — were charged in a sweeping indictment unsealed Thursday, May 1, in Central Islip federal court.
Andrade faces additional charges in the March 2023 killing of Jose Manuel Sosa, a fellow drug dealer, and in the attempted murder of a potential witness the very next day.
The crew trafficked more than 235 kilograms of cocaine and 20 kilograms of fentanyl since 2017, using stash houses across Long Island and Queens, prosecutors said. Their street name, “No Budget,” reportedly reflected their high-volume, high-violence approach to the drug trade.
Four of the defendants — Andrade, Prince Jones, 36, of Mineola; Jose Lopez, 43, of Elmont; and Ryan O’Malley, 34, of Port Jefferson Station — were arraigned Thursday and ordered held. Julian Hutchins, 43, of White Plains, was arrested in Florida and will be arraigned in New York.
A Murder In Bay Shore
The indictment paints a chilling picture of how far the crew was allegedly willing to go to protect their operation.
Andrade had an ongoing dispute with Sosa, another drug dealer, and allegedly planned to rob his home, prosecutors alleged. On March 9, 2023, Andrade allegedly directed other members of No Budget to kill Sosa. Later that day, a shooter exited a borrowed Audi and shot Sosa multiple times in his Bay Shore driveway.
Then, in a suspected attempt to eliminate a witness, Andrade allegedly ordered the shooting of “John Doe-1,” the owner of the Audi used in the crime. The next day, the shooter lured the man to a location in Queens and shot him in the head while he sat in the vehicle. Miraculously, the victim survived.
Major Drug Hauls, Violent Crimes
During their investigation, law enforcement intercepted a truck from California carrying 137 kilograms of cocaine meant for No Budget’s distribution pipeline. Search warrants recovered packaging materials, drug presses, fentanyl, and cocaine at several stash houses.
The group is accused of conducting meetings, making exchanges in duffle bags, and communicating regularly through encrypted apps and burner phones. Andrade is charged with firearms use in a drug crime, murder during drug trafficking, and witness tampering — among other federal offenses.
If convicted, each defendant faces up to life in prison.
The takedown was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation — a federal program that targets the most serious drug trafficking threats to the United States.
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