Dominican man sentenced for role in large-scale drug distribution operation involving southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut.
Boston For his involvement in a massive cocaine and fentanyl trafficking network that transported drugs throughout southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, a Dominican man was sentenced in federal court in Boston.
The Massachusetts Department of Justice reports that U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young sentenced 56-year-old Luis Alfonso Mejia-Diaz, also known as El Bello, to 13 years in prison and five years of supervised release. A guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl and 500 grams or more of cocaine was entered by Mejia-Diaz on April 5, 2023.
In October 2020, Mejia-Diaz and fourteen other people were charged. The investigation, which started in March 2017, found that Mejia-Diaz was a major distributor of cocaine and fentanyl who went by the moniker El Bello and provided supplies to other conspirators. 991 grams of fentanyl meant for Mejia-Diaz were found during the inquiry. Along with a kilogram press from on top of the air compressor, Mejia-Diaz’s apartment also included a concealed compartment containing over a kilogram of fentanyl and a loaded weapon when he was arrested in October 2020.
Mejia-Diaz is the thirteenth defendant in the case to receive a sentence.
Colonel Geoffrey D. Noble, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Fall River Police Chief Kelly Furtado; New Bedford Police Chief Paul Oliveira; Westport Police Chief Christopher A. Dunn; Providence Police Chief Oscar L. Perez, Jr.; United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; and Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine Ferguson and Ann Taylor of the Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit.
Through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a collaboration between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, a multi-agency task force carried out the operation. Finding, stopping, and dismantling the most dangerous drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and money laundering organizations—as well as those principally in charge of the country’s illicit narcotics supply—is the main goal of the OCDETF program. You can get more details on the OCDETF program at: https://www.justice.gov/ocdetf/about-ocdetf.
