Former hip-hop manager convicted in Brooklyn Federal Court

October 24, 2013 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Following a three-week trial, a federal jury in Brooklyn on Thursday returned a verdict convicting James Rosemond, also known as “Jimmy Henchman,” of being the leader of a continuing criminal enterprise (the “Rosemond Organization”) that distributed thousands of pounds of cocaine, the majority of which was sold on the streets of Brooklyn and Queens.

The defendant was also convicted of using firearms in furtherance of his narcotics trafficking, being a felon in possession of a firearm, financial crimes involving money laundering and structuring, and obstruction of justice for his role in trying to keep one of his cocaine suppliers from providing information to federal law enforcement authorities.

The evidence at trial established that the Rosemond Organization was a large bi-coastal narcotics-trafficking organization that shipped cocaine from the Los Angeles area to the New York City Metropolitan area and that, in turn, shipped cash proceeds of narcotics sales back to Los Angeles.

The Organization used a variety of shipping methods as part of its operations, including Federal Express and UPS, to ship boxes of mustard-covered cocaine and drug money, and using a music equipment shipping company to ship cocaine and drug money concealed in music equipment cases.

During the course of this investigation, law enforcement made multiple seizures of the Rosemond Organization’s drugs and money. In April 2010, law enforcement agents arrested four members of the organization and seized 27 kilograms of cocaine. In connection with the arrests, agents searched one of the defendant’s stash houses in Queens and seized a machine gun and ammunition, and a variety of drug trafficking paraphernalia.

Subsequently, in December 2010, agents seized over $785,000 stored in a music equipment case at a rehearsal studio in Manhattan. In total, between 2008 and 2010, law enforcement in New York and California seized over $2.8 million of the Rosemond Organization’s drug proceeds.

The trial testimony also established that on May 11, 2011, Rosemond, who was traveling in a vehicle equipped with a hidden compartment, sold one kilogram of cocaine to a cooperating witness. After an arrest warrant issued for him later that day, Rosemond fled, resulting in a nearly two-month-long manhunt that concluded with the defendant’s arrest by the United States Marshals Service on June 21, 2011.

To date, 19 members and associates of the Rosemond Organization have been convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering as a result of this investigation.

“Rosemond built and ran this drug trafficking organization in order to personally enrich himself and his associates, with wanton disregard for the lives of the residents of our communities,” stated United States Attorney Lynch.