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Buffalo neighbors miss crack-dealing grandmother
Theresa Anderson, 58, controlled the neighborhood drug game for a dozen years through violence and threats, feds say. But residents long for the kindly kingpin who they credit for keeping their blocks safe and clean in the crumbling upstate city.
They miss that old, crack-dealing grandma.
Theresa Anderson controlled the drug game for a dozen years on Buffalo’s East Side, presiding like a godmother over a pair of poor streets.
“I miss Theresa, I really do,” neighbor Debra Walker said. “I actually felt safer. Now my place has been broken into.”
Anderson, 58, bought up at least 10 houses in the crumbling neighborhoods along Swinburne and Deshler streets, and operated a bustling crack trade with the help of her many relatives.
Federal prosecutors said the family trampled rival dealers through violence and intimidation, but neighbors said organization also kept the area clean and safe for the people who lived there.
Neighbor Deanna Gresko said Anderson wasn’t a “gang-banger drug dealer who would threaten you.”
Paid lookouts and a loyal family workforce kept Anderson a step ahead of the cops until February 2012 when SWAT teams raided more than a dozen houses she and her family owned.
Cops arrested Anderson and eight others: her common-law husband, son, three daughters, two of the daughter’s boyfriends and a granddaughter.
U.S Attorney William Hochul Jr. said at the time that the raid sent two messages.
“First, to those engaged in any form of organized criminal activity – you are being targeted and your days are numbered. Second, to residents in our community – law enforcement is committed to protecting you, your families, and your property,” Hochul said in a statement.
Cops arrested Anderson and eight others: her common-law husband, son, three daughters, two of the daughter’s boyfriends and a granddaughter.
U.S Attorney William Hochul Jr. said at the time that the raid sent two messages.
“First, to those engaged in any form of organized criminal activity – you are being targeted and your days are numbered. Second, to residents in our community – law enforcement is committed to protecting you, your families, and your property,” Hochul said in a statement.
But Gresko said she felt better protected when Anderson and her relatives were around to run off the prostitutes and johns who now slip into their abandoned homes.
“There was people here,” Gresko said. “There was people watching.”
City Councilman David Franczyk, whose district covers Anderson’s old turf, has heard the complaints.
“It's a sad commentary," he said. "It's like the old days of Prohibition when you looked for the mob to keep order on your street. ... But it's a false sense of security. She's bringing criminals into the neighborhood."
Anderson and her family have pleaded guilty to federal drug crimes. She faces a maximum of 17 1/2 years on a conspiracy charges when she’s sentenced on Tuesday.
Anderson’s attorney, Robert Ross Fogg, said she took a plea “for the sake of her children and grandchildren,” the Buffalo News reported.
“Drugs, they take hold of you,” Fogg said. “They take your soul, and they take your mind.”
Houses investigators say once buzzed with “24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week” crack trade now sit boarded up and abandoned.
Dannette Coleman moved next door to one of Anderson’s old houses a year after the raids.
“I heard there was a lot of drug activity, but that she was a nice lady,” Coleman said. “That she took care of her community.”
Theresa Anderson, 58, controlled the neighborhood drug game for a dozen years through violence and threats, feds say. But residents long for the kindly kingpin who they credit for keeping their blocks safe and clean in the crumbling upstate city.
They miss that old, crack-dealing grandma.
Theresa Anderson controlled the drug game for a dozen years on Buffalo’s East Side, presiding like a godmother over a pair of poor streets.
“I miss Theresa, I really do,” neighbor Debra Walker said. “I actually felt safer. Now my place has been broken into.”
Anderson, 58, bought up at least 10 houses in the crumbling neighborhoods along Swinburne and Deshler streets, and operated a bustling crack trade with the help of her many relatives.
Federal prosecutors said the family trampled rival dealers through violence and intimidation, but neighbors said organization also kept the area clean and safe for the people who lived there.
Neighbor Deanna Gresko said Anderson wasn’t a “gang-banger drug dealer who would threaten you.”
Paid lookouts and a loyal family workforce kept Anderson a step ahead of the cops until February 2012 when SWAT teams raided more than a dozen houses she and her family owned.
Cops arrested Anderson and eight others: her common-law husband, son, three daughters, two of the daughter’s boyfriends and a granddaughter.
U.S Attorney William Hochul Jr. said at the time that the raid sent two messages.
“First, to those engaged in any form of organized criminal activity – you are being targeted and your days are numbered. Second, to residents in our community – law enforcement is committed to protecting you, your families, and your property,” Hochul said in a statement.
Cops arrested Anderson and eight others: her common-law husband, son, three daughters, two of the daughter’s boyfriends and a granddaughter.
U.S Attorney William Hochul Jr. said at the time that the raid sent two messages.
“First, to those engaged in any form of organized criminal activity – you are being targeted and your days are numbered. Second, to residents in our community – law enforcement is committed to protecting you, your families, and your property,” Hochul said in a statement.
But Gresko said she felt better protected when Anderson and her relatives were around to run off the prostitutes and johns who now slip into their abandoned homes.
“There was people here,” Gresko said. “There was people watching.”
City Councilman David Franczyk, whose district covers Anderson’s old turf, has heard the complaints.
“It's a sad commentary," he said. "It's like the old days of Prohibition when you looked for the mob to keep order on your street. ... But it's a false sense of security. She's bringing criminals into the neighborhood."
Anderson and her family have pleaded guilty to federal drug crimes. She faces a maximum of 17 1/2 years on a conspiracy charges when she’s sentenced on Tuesday.
Anderson’s attorney, Robert Ross Fogg, said she took a plea “for the sake of her children and grandchildren,” the Buffalo News reported.
“Drugs, they take hold of you,” Fogg said. “They take your soul, and they take your mind.”
Houses investigators say once buzzed with “24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week” crack trade now sit boarded up and abandoned.
Dannette Coleman moved next door to one of Anderson’s old houses a year after the raids.
“I heard there was a lot of drug activity, but that she was a nice lady,” Coleman said. “That she took care of her community.”
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