News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10, 2005

WORCESTER MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL DRUG CHARGES

Worcester, MA... A Worcester man was convicted late yesterday in federal court on federal drug offenses.

June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New England and United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, announced that RAHEEM JONES, age 35, formerly of 45 Wachusett Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV to five counts of distributing cocaine base, commonly known as “crack” cocaine..

At yesterday’s plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that, had the case proceeded to trial, the Government’s evidence would have proven that from March 2003 through June 2003, JONES distributed over 80 grams of cocaine base in Worcester, Massachusetts. During that time period, the DEA’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (“HIDTA”) Task Force made five separate undercover purchases of cocaine base from JONES, each occurring in the area of the Belmont Hill neighborhood of Worcester. On each occasion, DEA agents were able to witness and record the drug transactions.

Judge Saylor scheduled JONES’ sentencing for August 1, 2005, at 3:00 p.m. JONES has been in custody since his arrest on July 8, 2003 and faces a minimum mandatory term of imprisonment of 5 years and a maximum term of 40 years.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Task Force in Worcester, with the assistance of the Massachusetts State Police and the Worcester Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Casey in Sullivan’s Worcester Office.