'No Budget' gang members indicted on charges of distributing fentanyl, cocaine on Long Island 

Five men, including three from Long Island, were charged Thursday with operating a yearslong drug trafficking organization, distributing cocaine and fentanyl across Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties, federal prosecutors said.

In addition, Nicholas Andrade, 37, of White Plains, the leader of the organization, known as "No Budget," was charged with the 2023 murder of a Bay Shore man and shooting a potential witness to the homicide, the federal indictment states. The witness survived.

The other four defendants are Prince Jones, 36, of Mineola, Jose Lopez, 43, of Elmont, Ryan O'Malley, 34, of Port Jefferson Station and Julian Hutchins, 43, of White Plains. They were arraigned Thursday in Central Islip on a charge of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances.

"The defendants participated in the large-scale distribution of deadly narcotics across Long Island and committed crimes of extreme violence to maintain their drug business," said John Durham, U.S. Attorney for New York's Eastern District. 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Locke Thursday ordered Andrade, Lopez, Jones and O'Malley held without bail. Hutchins was arrested in Florida and will be arraigned at a later date.

The defendants each face up to life in prison.

Chris Cassar, O'Malley's Huntington-based defense attorney, said his client is "not involved with any drug organization. He did not knowingly possess any drugs. He has an outstanding reputation in the community helping underprivileged children get scholarships for athletics to get them off the street."

Attorneys for the other four men did not respond to requests for comment or were not immediately reachable for comment.

Since 2017, the five men trafficked and distributed fentanyl and cocaine on Long Island, while maintaining a series of stash houses across the region and in Queens, the indictment states. Phone records and surveillance video captured the defendants exchanging duffel bags and luggage consistent with narcotics trafficking, prosecutors said.

During court-authorized searches, law enforcement officials recovered dozens of kilogram wrappers with cocaine residue, presses used to reshape narcotics, packaging materials and quantities of fentanyl and cocaine, authorities said.

On April 27, 2025, law enforcement intercepted a truck traveling from California to New York containing a shipment of 137 kilograms of cocaine that authorities contend was destined for No Budget’s distribution operation.

In total, the defendants were responsible for the distribution of more than 235 kilograms of cocaine and 20 kilograms of fentanyl, prosecutors said.

"The indictment against these individuals who ran a drug trafficking organization known as "No Budget" spared no cost at using violence to run their illicit drug distribution of cocaine and fentanyl," said Frank Tarentino III, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Division.

Andrade was also charged with the March 9, 2023 murder of Jose Manuel Sosa in Bay Shore and a shooting the following day in Queens of a potential witness to the murder.

The murder, prosecutors said, was precipitated by a dispute between Andrade, Sosa and another Long Island-based drug dealer that had escalated over the preceding months, officials said.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.