Crime & Safety

Report: Irish Gang Member Indicted at Republic Airport

'Westies' accused of transporting marijuana on private jet in Farmingdale.

Manhattan’s former “Irish Mafia’’ gang is back and making news in Farmingdale, reports The New York Post this week.

The Westies gang, famous for running loan-sharking and extortion in the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen through the early 1990s, has resurfaced with a scheme that allegedly uses a fleet of private jets to smuggle high-grade marijuana from California to cities across the country, authorities told The Post.

The Post says that John Bokun, whose family members were Westies, was recently indicted by Long Island federal prosecutors at in Farmingdale on marijuana-trafficking charges.

Find out what's happening in Farmingdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

He is accused of "teaming up with a California drug organization to use his Dassault Falcon executive jet to distribute top-grade hydroponic marijuana across the country," records said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents said they observed Bokun loading his Falcon at an airport near the pot-growing region in California’s Coast Mountains. ICE agents were waiting for him when his private jet landed in Farmingdale and Assistant US Attorney Christopher Ott told a federal judge authorities seized $500,000 worth of marijuana, according to The Post report.

Find out what's happening in Farmingdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.


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