Operation Hailstorm Meth Kingpin Sentenced

An Arizona man will serve 30 years in federal prison for funneling huge amounts of methamphetamine from Phoenix into Broome County.

The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York says 44-year-old Alonzo Harris was sentenced June 12 after being convicted in October of running the drug trafficking ring.

Harris was nabbed along with nine co-conspirators in a multi-agency investigation dubbed “Operation Hailstorm.”  The other co-conspirators in the meth ring all pleaded guilty and were sentenced.

Harris was found guilty of federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges in a four-day jury trial for using the U.S. Postal Service to send more than fifty, multi-pound packages of methamphetamine from the Phoenix area to other members of his gang in Broome County, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug-sale proceeds.