WORCESTER — A Boston man pleaded guilty last Friday in federal court in regard to the charges stemming from his role in a nationwide drug network that used commercial tractor trailers to transport drugs from Mexico up to Massachusetts.
In March, the truck driver associated with the same drug conspiracy, a Texas man, also pleaded guilty in Worcester and was sentenced to less than 3 years in prison.
Francis Jose Perez-Baez, 41, pleaded guilty on Friday, Dec. 15 in Worcester federal court to the following charges: conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine; and the same charge in regards to both 400 grams or more of fentanyl and 40 grams or more of fentanyl.
In February of 2021, after a intensive investigation, federal agents arrested two of his conspirators and seized large quantities of both cocaine and fentanyl
U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman scheduled a sentencing hearing for April 25, 2024. Perez-Baez was charged in November 2021 along with his co-defendants Javier Robledo Perez, Vicente Castro and Carlos Longoria.
Longoria was a commercial truck driver who transported kilograms of cocaine, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds across state lines on behalf of a drug trafficking organization based in Mexico and Texas. He was charged with a five-count superseding indictment; charges that carried a combined mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison with the possibility of life.
However, on March 31, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Mastroianni sentenced Longoria, a resident of Loredo, Tex., to two years and 10 months in prison and two years of supervised release after Longoria had pleaded guilty.
Perez-Baez was a Boston-based drug distributor who distributed large quantities of cocaine and fentanyl. Perez-Baez received multiple kilograms of cocaine from a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization that utilized commercial tractor trailers, like Longoria’s, to transport dozens of kilograms of cocaine throughout the United States, including to Massachusetts.
Over the course of the investigation, Perez-Baez paid the drug trafficking organization nearly $280,000 in drug proceeds for multiple kilograms of cocaine that the organization had previously supplied to him on credit. Additionally, Perez-Baez sold fentanyl to a cooperating witness on multiple occasions – over 500 grams of fentanyl in August 2020 and 200 grams of fentanyl in April 2021.
Meanwhile, Longoria, in July of 2020, transported $280,000 in drug proceeds from Massachusetts and transported that money back to Texas to be sent back to the drug suppliers in Mexico. In September and October 2020, Longoria traveled to Massachusetts to deliver and/or pick up vehicles that had hidden compartments installed in them for the drug trafficking organization to use to hide drugs and drug proceeds.
In January 2021, Longoria delivered nearly eight kilograms of cocaine to a cooperating witness in Massachusetts. In February 2021, Longoria’s co-conspirators made arrangements for Longoria and his co-defendant Castro to deliver an additional 10 kilograms of cocaine to Massachusetts.
On Feb. 8, 2021, agents stopped Longoria and Castro and seized nearly 10 kilograms of cocaine from the truck they were driving.
This announcement was made on Monday by Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy, FBI Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen, Boston Division, and Interim State Police Col. John Mawn Jr.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Laredo and Dallas Divisions provided valuable assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alathea Porter of the Criminal Division is prosecuting the case.
This effort was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a task force that “identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the U.S., using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach,” according to a statement from Levy’s office. Additional information about the program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
-Office of Acting U.S. District Attorney Joshua Levy