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Keston Braithwaite, age 39, of Brooklyn, was sentenced to 31 years to life in prison Friday, Sept. 23, by a Suffolk County judge.
It followed his July 2022 convictions on eleven criminal counts, including operating as major drug trafficker and criminal possession of a weapon.
Prosecutors said between August 2019 and May 2020, Braithwaite acted as a major supplier of a multi-million dollar drug distribution network based out of a stash house in Ronkonkoma, on Southport Street.
It was there that he regularly bagged “significant quantities” of cocaine and fentanyl that was then sold throughout the area, investigators said.
After executing a search warrant on the home, police found over two kilograms (4 ½ pounds) of fentanyl, one kilogram of cocaine, and numerous cutting agents, packaging materials, and digital scales.
They also recovered six loaded guns, a money counter, and close to $20,000 in cash, prosecutors said.
Braithwaite’s sentence was enhanced due to a prior conviction for a violent felony.
“This sentence takes into account the damage that this defendant caused in Suffolk County by peddling these deadly drugs to vulnerable members of our community,” Suffolk County DA Raymond Tierney said.
“Fentanyl and other dangerous and addictive drugs are a lucrative business for unscrupulous drug dealers. The illegal drugs they sell not only ruin the lives and disrupt families, they kill."
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