The Geneseo Police Department arrested four individuals for trafficking marijuana in Livingston County on Tuesday Oct. 25. More than 8 lbs of marijuana were confiscated, an estimated value of over $30,000. Three of the individuals arrested are Geneseo students.
The students who were arrested include junior Ada Song, junior Ryan Lum and senior Tyler Vandyke. Ze Hoa Lin was also arrested, and is believed to be an acquaintance of one or more of the students, Sheriff Thomas J. Dougherty said in a phone interview. All of the individuals have been charged with Felony Criminal Possession of Marijuana in the 2nd Degree and class A misdemeanor Conspiracy in the 5th Degree.
“The conspiracy charge means that you agreed to do something or had a part in the action involved. So all four of these individuals were charged because they had knowledge that this was going to occur and they had some part in the action,” Dougherty said. “The felony charge for the possession comes from the weight of the marijuana. So the felony is the most serious of the two charges.”
Vandyke is suspected to be involved in the conspiracy to a lesser degree, Village of Geneseo Police Chief Eric Osganian said in a phone interview.
The United States Postal Inspection Service alerted the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office last week that three suspicious packages were being sent from California to Geneseo, which prompted a week-long investigation. The agency decided to check the packages because of their scent.
As a result, the Livingston County Drug Task Force carried out a search warrant at 21 Orchard St. and found $10,450 in U.S. currency and $2,925 in Canadian currency. The Task Force is still investigating the connections that the defendants have with California and Canada, according to Osganian.
The Task Force is in the process of obtaining search warrants for each of the defendants’ phones and a rental car, which was going to be used to transport the drugs elsewhere, Osganian said.
All of the individuals arrested have made bail, so the Task Force has not had to rush to obtain further evidence, according to Osganian.
“Right now, all of the defendants made bail, so there’s no per say felony hearing where there has to be an urgency to produce evidence,” Osganian said. “They’ll have court dates down the road, so I think the urgency of getting those search warrants isn’t as immediate as it would be if they were still in jail, where we would want to...provide as much evidence as we can so that the court would either have cause to keep them in jail or to hold onto the bail.”
The Geneseo students who were arrested are allowed on the Geneseo campus, Osganian added.
Dougherty said he would like to work to keep Geneseo drug free in the future by catching more serious drug crimes.
“Believe me, I would like to be taking heroin and cocaine and any type of drug off the street, and I would encourage anybody who has that kind of information to come forward,” Dougherty said. “As the Drug Task Force, we want to look into all types of drug offenses. So if someone has crimes that they feel are more significant or drugs that are more dangerous, and has more information on where we can find those illegal drugs, I will happily take that information.”
No court dates or convictions have been made public at this time.