BOSTON – A Natick man has been convicted following a six-day jury trial in connection with fentanyl trafficking. During a search of the defendant’s apartment, the body of a missing 24-year-old woman who had died of a drug overdose was discovered. Rafael Ashworth, 29, was convicted of one count of...

BOSTON – A Holyoke man has been sentenced in federal court in Springfield in connection with drug and firearm offenses. Jonathan Mercedes, 31, was sentenced on Feb. 5, 2024 by U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to 10 years in prison and four years of supervised release. In July...

BOSTON – A Philadelphia woman has been sentenced to eight days in prison for conspiring to distribute kilos of fentanyl and heroin. The government recommended a sentence of 37 months in prison. Elba Pena, 34, was sentenced on Feb. 1, 2024 by U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs to...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Connecticut man detained at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility while awaiting sentencing on a criminal matter prosecuted in the District of Connecticut has been sentenced in U.S. District Court in Providence to two years of incarceration for arranging to have papers soaked with a synthetic...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Providence man with a lengthy criminal history, to include more than a dozen convictions for a wide variety of offenses, including breaking and entering, drug trafficking, domestic violence, forgery and counterfeiting, larceny, armed bank robbery, and carrying a concealed weapon, was sentenced today to five years...

BOSTON – A Malden man was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for distributing methamphetamine to an undercover law enforcement officer. David Desousa, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to 10 years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. In...

BURLINGTON, Vt. – eBay Inc, an e-commerce company headquartered in San Jose, California, has agreed to pay $59 million and to enhance its compliance program to resolve allegations that it violated the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in connection with thousands of pill presses and encapsulating machines that were sold through...

BOSTON – A Venezuelan man has been sentenced for laundering drug trafficking proceeds from around the world. Manuel Calderin Calderin, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to 27 months in prison and one year of supervised release. In October 2023, Calderin Calderin pleaded guilty to...

BOSTON – A Lynn man was sentenced federal court in Boston for his role in a North Shore-based drug trafficking organization (DTO) that manufactured and distributed thousands of counterfeit prescription pills containing narcotics. Erick Solis Lopez, 25, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A California woman admitted to a federal judge in Providence, RI, that she participated in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Rhode Island and that in June of 2022, she distributed over three pounds of crystal methamphetamine and was in possession of over two- and one-half pounds...