News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2008

Woburn Man Sentenced To 15½ Years In Federal Prison

JAN 17 -- (Boston, MA) - A Woburn man was sentenced to 15 ½ years in federal prison on drug distribution charges on January 15, 2008.

June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration - New England Field Division and United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, announced that ESPEL CALIXTO was sentenced to 188 months’ imprisonment followed by 6 years of supervised release by United States District Judge George A. O’Toole on January 15, 2008. CALIXTO pled guilty in January 2007, to three federal narcotics charges stemming from an joint investigation between the DEA and the Woburn Police Department to address drug dealing in and around the Creston Avenue Housing Projects in Woburn.

CALIXTO had pled to one count of conspiracy to distribute to distribute cocaine within the protected location of a public housing project and two substantive counts of distributing cocaine on August 3, 2004 and August 4, 2004 inside that protected location.

During the sentencing proceedings, the prosecutor told the Court that CALIXTO was “one of the worst problems in the city [of Woburn],” which local police had been battling for years. Judge O’Toole sentenced CALIXTO to 188 months’ imprisonment – 176 months over the minimum term of imprisonment mandated by statute.

The case was investigated by Drug Enforcement Administration - New England Field Division and the Woburn Police Department.