Man Sentenced To 63 Months For Conspiracy To Distribute Cocaine
BURLINGTON,Vt. - John J. Arvanitis, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that on June 24, 2013, Matthew Burt, 38, of South Burlington, Vermont was sentenced to 63 months imprisonment by Judge J. Garvan Murtha in United States District Court in Brattleboro. Burt also agreed to the forfeiture of $50,000 as proceeds of his criminal offense. In addition, Judge Murtha sentenced Burt to three years of supervised release.
On January 22, 2013, Burt pleaded guilty to a one-count Superseding Information charging him with conspiracy to distribute cocaine between April 2011 and April 2012. According to court records, DEA and the Vermont State Police conducted seven controlled purchases of cocaine from Burt during January, February, and March 2012.
These controlled purchases occurred at Champlain Valley Auto, a business owned and operated by Burt in Burlington. Law enforcement subsequently learned that a courier was regularly transporting substantial quantities of cocaine by rental car from the source of supply in Massachusetts to Vermont. Once the cocaine arrived in Vermont, Burt and codefendant Michael Riley distributed it to local customers. On the evening of April 4, 2012, law enforcement intercepted a rental car as it arrived at Champlain Valley Auto from Massachusetts with approximately a kilogram of cocaine. During an interview with law enforcement the day before the seizure of the kilo of cocaine, Burt admitted that large quantities of cocaine had been sold from Champlain Valley Auto, and that he had rented the car that the drug courier would be using to transport the cocaine to the business. As part of his plea agreement, Burt admitted that he knew the courier had traveled to Massachusetts on April 4, 2012 with approximately $42,000.
Investigators subsequently identified Luis Torres of New Bedford, Massachusetts as Burt and Riley’s supplier of cocaine. On May 2, 2013, Torres was sentenced to 100 months imprisonment and four years of supervised release. On May 29, 2013, Riley received a total sentence of 144 months for his role in this cocaine distribution conspiracy.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the
