The Erie County Sheriff’s Office and Erie County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday they seized narcotics, guns and cash in a Grand Island home over the weekend.
Forty-two-year-old Anson Whitted will face eight felonies and four misdemeanor charges against him. Whitted is a previously convicted felon with a history of two violent felonies.
The investigation began in 2021 when Erie County Sheriff’s Narcotics and Intel Unit started receiving anonymous complaints about drug trafficking activities within Buffalo and surrounding suburbs. The case reopened about one month ago.
A search warrant was signed by New York State Supreme Court Judge Betty Kelvil Torres for Whitted’s person, vehicle, and residence Thursday.
Whitted was taken into custody by the Erie County Sheriff Office’s Narcotics and Intelligence Unit on Friday. Personnel had seen Whitted leaving his Grand Island residence in a vehicle driven by a female, with his 2-year-old child occupying the rear seat.
The ECSO recovered an eighth of an ounce of a combination of cocaine and fentanyl. The vehicle was stopped by patrol deputies on I-90 near Niagara Street and Whitted was taken into custody.
The search of residence resulted in the recovery of half a kilogram of cocaine crack combination, approximately 50 grams of fentanyl, $5,000 in U.S. currency, and two assault rifles — an AK 47 and an AR 15 — that was stolen out of Garfield Heights, Ohio. Three handguns were covered as well. All the firearms were loaded at the time of recovery.
Whitted is currently being held at the Erie County Holding Center.
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia deemed the trafficking and use of fentanyl as a serious “state and a national problem,” adding that Erie County has seen more overdoses last year than in any other before. Garcia added that the county must “continue to deal with people peddling these poisons in the community.”
Whitted’s case is an ongoing investigation and is to appear in court in front of a Grand Jury.