News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2003

Defendant Sentenced to 22 Years on Federal Drug Charges

Boston, MA….After entering a guilty plea to federal charges, a New Bedford man was sentenced Wednesday, June 18, 2003, to 22 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Southeastern Massachusetts. The conspiracy was capped by the seizure of a tractor-trailer containing a 260 kilogram shipment - 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, United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, Steven J. Farquharson, District Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in New England; Colonel Thomas J. 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; and Arthur J. Kelly, Chief of the New Bedford Police Department; announced today that Chief U.S. District Judge William G. Young sentenced Jose CABRERA, a/k/a "J", age 38, formerly of 9 Kearsage Street, New Bedford, Massachusetts, to 22 years' imprisonment and an $8 million dollar fine. In imposing sentence, Judge Young told CABRERA that the sentence was "fair and just, as all the sentences have been in this case."

In December 2002, a trial 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, was convicted after a separate trial. Pacheco is awaiting sentencing before Judge Young.

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

Press Contact S/A Anthony Pettigrew, 617-557-2138