United States Drug Enforcement Administration

(BOSTON - A Miami man operating throughout South Florida was sentenced on January 9, 2015, for his role in an oxycodone distribution conspiracy involving thousands of oxycodone pills and stolen identities of Puerto Rican residents.

Michael J. Ferguson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boston Field Division; United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; and William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, announced that Jose Perez, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to 46 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In April 2014, Perez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute oxycodone, distribution of oxycodone, and identity theft.

In February 2011, a federal investigation into the oxycodone distribution organization operated by Perez in Florida and several co-conspirators in the Boston area revealed that from at least 2011 through January 2013, Perez sold large quantities of oxycodone pills to co-conspirators in Massachusetts and Rhode Island who distributed the oxycodone pills in Massachusetts. Beginning in November 2011, Perez initiated an identity theft and tax refund scheme where he sold hundreds of legitimate names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers of Puerto Rican residents to an undercover federal agent, intending that the identities be used to fraudulently obtain tax refunds. Over the last several years, increasing numbers of drug dealers have diversified their operations to include lucrative identity theft and tax fraud schemes.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christophe F. Bator of Ortiz’s Drug Task Force Unit.