News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2003

Defendant Sentenced To 18 Years On Federal Drug Charges

Boston, MA…. After entering a guilty plea to federal drug charges, a New Bedford man was sentenced yesterday to 18 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Southeastern Massachusetts. The conspiracy was capped by the seizure of a 260 kilogram shipment of cocaine- the largest ever seizure in Massachusetts history.

Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division, Steven J. Farquharson, District Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in New England, Colonel Thomas Foley, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, Michael Healy, Chief of the Westport Police Department, John M. Sousa, Chief of the Fall River Police Department, Arthur J. Kelly, Chief of the New Bedford Police Department and United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, announced that Chief U.S. District Judge William G. Young sentenced MIGUEL CABRERA, a/k/a "Mack", age 37, formerly of 246 Bonin Street, New Bedford, Massachusetts to 18 years' imprisonment. In imposing sentence, Judge Young told CABRERA that the sentence reflected, "the enormity of what you have done… that you were involved in the largest cocaine bust in the history of Massachusetts."

In December 2002, a trail jury convicted four of CABRERA's co-defendants of conspiring to distribute cocaine, and specifically found that CABRERA's nephew, Rafael Yeje-Cabrera, was guilty of conspiring to distribute in excess of 260 kilograms of cocaine. Fourteen other of CABRERA's co-defendants have also pleaded guilty to federal drug charges; one defendant, Jason Pacheco, is scheduled to go to trail on March 3, 2003.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Massachusetts State Police, the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General, and the Westport, Fall River, and New Bedford Police Departments.