News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2005

LAWRENCE MAN CONVICTED OF
SELLING HEROIN THAT KILLED WOBURN MAN

Boston, MA... A Lawrence man was convicted today by a federal trial jury of conspiring to distribute more than a kilogram of heroin, and of distributing heroin that resulted in the death of a Woburn man.

June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New England; United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Chief Phillip Mahoney of the Woburn Police Department; and Chief Richard Stanley of the North Andover Police Department, announced today that LUIS DE LA CRUZ, age 23, of Union Street in Lawrence, was convicted by a jury sitting before U.S. District Judge Robert E. Keeton of conspiring to distribute more than a kilogram of heroin, and of distributing heroin that resulted in a heroin overdose death.

Evidence presented during the ten-day trial proved that between July, 1999 and March, 2001, DE LA CRUZ participated in a conspiracy to distribute heroin throughout northern Massachusetts. The jury found that the conspirators had distributed more than a kilogram of heroin. Evidence also proved that, on March 8, 2001, DE LA CRUZ distributed heroin that resulted in the heroin overdose death of Bryan Wallace, a 21-year-old Woburn man.

Judge Keeton scheduled sentencing for July 20, 2005. Under the “Len Bias law,” DE LA CRUZ faces a minimum-mandatory term of 20 years’ imprisonment, with a maximum of life, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release, and a $4 million fine.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Cross Borders Initiative (comprised of special agents from the DEA and officers from the Salem, N.H., Wilmington, Haverhill, and Lowell police departments, the Essex County Sheriff’s Department, and the Massachusetts State Police), and the Woburn and North Andover Police Departments. The indictment of the case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Ricciuti in Sullivan’s Criminal Division. It is now being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rachel E. Hershfang, Denise Jefferson Casper in Sullivan’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit.