United States Drug Enforcement Administration

BOSTON – A Boston-based fentanyl and cocaine supplier was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for his role in a drug trafficking conspiracy.

Jose Perez Felix, a/k/a “Eugenio Piedraita-Rivera,” “Roberto Patricio Ramirez,” “Grande,” 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 87 months in prison and four years of supervised release. On Sept. 29, 2021, Perez Felix pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin, 400 grams or more of fentanyl, cocaine, cocaine base, oxycodone and marijuana and one count of distribution of heroin.

In 2018, federal and state law enforcement agents began investigating a violent Brockton drug crew headed by Djuna Goncalves. The investigation revealed that Goncalves and others distributed large quantities of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, cocaine base and marijuana throughout Southeastern Massachusetts from a base of operations in Brockton. The investigation also identified Perez Felix as a Boston-based fentanyl and cocaine supplier for Goncalves and others. Intercepted communications from Perez Felix’s cellphone determined that he distributed large quantities of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine from a base of operations in Boston throughout the greater Boston area and that Perez Felix routinely provided Djuna with supplier quantities of fentanyl (50 grams at a time).

On April 9, 2019, agents observed Perez Felix deliver heroin to a customer in Dorchester and subsequently seized 60 grams of a heroin-fentanyl mixture from the buyer. A search of Perez Felix’s residence in May 2019 resulted in the seizure of cellphones, materials commonly used to package drugs for street level sale, digital scales and a bag containing approximately 60 grams of a heroin-fentanyl mixture.

In all, 17 defendants, including Perez Felix, were indicted as part of a wide-ranging drug trafficking conspiracy reaching from Boston to Brockton to Cape Cod. Perez Felix is the 14th defendant to be sentenced in the case.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Matthew B. Millhollin, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; Brian D. Boyle, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Division; Colonel Christopher Mason, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; and Boston Police Acting Commissioner Gregory Long made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Pohl and Alathea Porter of Rollins’ Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit prosecuted the case.

“Fentanyl is causing deaths in record numbers and DEA’s top priority is to aggressively pursue anyone who distributes this poison in order to profit and destroy lives,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Brian D. Boyle.  “Illegal drug distribution ravages the very foundations of our families and communities so every time we take fentanyl off the streets, lives are saved."

The operation was conducted by a multi-agency task force through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply. More information on the OCDETF program is available here: https://www.justice.gov/ocdetf/about-ocdetf.