Syracuse man arrested in cocaine bust on Burnet Avenue, police say

A Burnet Avenue address that has already drawn neighborhood scrutiny became the focus of a major drug case when State Police seized about 1.1 pounds of powder cocaine and crack cocaine, plus more than $5,000 in cash, from 1443 Burnet Ave. in Syracuse.

Investigators executed the search warrant around 8:10 a.m. on June 5 after a two-month narcotics investigation that brought in the New York State Police Troop D Community Stabilization Unit, the Violent Gang and Narcotics Enforcement Team, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The federal agency’s role points to a broader enforcement effort than a routine street-level arrest, with investigators looking at the same narcotics-and-gun connections that have shaped other Syracuse drug cases this year.

Police said the search also turned up an operable digital scale with cocaine residue, narcotics packaging materials, narcotics dilutants and instruments used to process cocaine and crack cocaine. Troopers arrested Randy L. Brimley, 46, of Syracuse, and charged him with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, narcotic drug with intent to sell, and three counts of criminal use of drug paraphernalia in the second degree. He was taken to the Onondaga County Justice Center pending arraignment.

The first-degree possession charge carries the heaviest weight under New York law. For narcotic drugs, it applies to eight ounces or more, which means the 1.1-pound seizure at the Burnet Avenue property met the threshold for a class A-I felony. Prosecutors and police often treat cases at that level as distribution operations, not simple possession, because the drugs, cash and packaging materials can indicate a supply chain moving through city neighborhoods.

Burnet Avenue has been in the city’s crosshairs before. In September 2023, city code enforcement shut down an illegal bar and night club at 400 Burnet Ave. after late-night events prompted neighborhood complaints, and later reporting described the corridor as a long-running nuisance area with lingering code violations and property disputes. That history gives the latest raid sharper local significance: another enforcement action on a block where residents and nearby businesses have already dealt with repeated disorder.

The arrest also fits a wider pattern in Syracuse, where State Police have used the same Troop D Community Stabilization Unit and VGNET teams, often with ATF, in recent narcotics and firearms investigations on Midland Avenue, South Edwards Avenue, Schiller Avenue and North Salina Street. On Burnet Avenue, the seizure now leaves a visible mark on the block: a house under felony charges, a corridor already under pressure, and one more sign that police are treating city drug cases as part of a larger public-safety fight.