Articles Posted in Drug Offenses

At the end of last week, the United States Attorney’s office issued a press release. The posting of it, as we have discussed in the past, as recently as last week, is apparently deemed necessary in LawenforcementLand to let us know that they are doing their job and arresting people.

Whether those people turn out to be guilty, of course, is another issue. In the meantime, of course, they will be presumed innocent…and assumed guilty.

To be fair, though, the federal prosecutor’s office generally gets the convictions that they are after.

As I recall, this was released around the same time I was getting posts on my IPhone that they were trying to find some gang member who apparently had escaped from federal custody. Yes, that would be the same office.

But I digress.

According to the release, two gentlemen from Cambridge were among 56 alleged “MS-13” gang members, leaders and associates who were taken into custody by law enforcement Friday morning.
Erick Argueta Larios, aka “Lobo,” 31, and Herzzon Sandoval, aka “Casper,” 34, both of Cambridge, had been indicted on federal racketeering conspiracy charges.
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Kevin Burnham, a “decorated and highly-respected” Springfield police officer who retired in 2014 (and hereinafter, the “Defendant”) has been indicted with stealing approximately $385,317 which had been evidence in 170 drug cases. He has pleaded “not guilty” and released on his own recognizance.

The Defendant must turn in his passport, not travel out of state without Probation Department permission, turn his guns over to counsel who must give them to any successor counsel, and give his license to carry firearms to the police commissioner.

The defense attorney at the bail hearing was appointed “for arraignment only” and so now the Defendant must find his own criminal defense attorney by January 19th.

The Indictments charging the Defendant with larceny counts name a timeline of more than a four year period .
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I have been around as a Boston criminal defense attorney for an uncountable number of years. Laws and procedures that make little to no sense is nothing new in the trenches.

One such sentencing-related law was changed this past week.

On Wednesday, the state House of Representatives unanimously voted to repeal a 1989 law which dealt with convictions for drug offenses. The law basically mandated that someone convicted of such a crime (whether by plea or after trial) would automatically have their driver’s license suspended whether or not said drug matter had anything to do with driving.

The Senate passed a similar law repealing that 27-year-old legislation in the fall. Governor Charlie Baker has indicated he is “open” to the legislation as well, the Boston Globe reports.

The original hope had been that the added punishment would intended to deter drug use. The problem was more in Reality than in Hope Land. In Reality, suspending licenses limited the ability of prior drug users to get their life back on the path to recovery.
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Hello and happy new year! I wish I could be starting the year off with a happy story…but this is, after all, a criminal law blog.

Springfield authorities have announced their recent bust which took place on Saturday night. According to the Boston Herald . the police say that the heroin seized was marked with the infamous “Hollywood” stamp.

The “Hollywood’ stamp indicates that it is the “brand” of heroin that is running rampant through western Massachusetts.

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You know the scene.

Law enforcement smells illegal drugs, guns or even child pornography. Something illegal.

Maybe they are right…and maybe they are wrong.

The authorities are banging on your door to check it out.

You demand to see a warrant.

They don’t have one.
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We usually encourage teachers who take a personal interest in students. Not always, though. Sometimes, we figure it is going too far.

This case involves such allegations.

28-year-old Elizabeth Backler (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was a North Shore educator and swim coach at north Andover High School. While she is no longer so employed, that is where the facts at issue are alleged to have taken place.
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As I write this the website for his Cannabis Consulting is still up and, seemingly, ready for business.

However, 41-year-old Ezra Parzybok (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) may have a fight on his hands to keep said business going.

You see, the Defendant has been caught up in one of the biggest hypocritical snafus that the Commonwealth has to offer these days.

You guessed it. We are talking about the semi-legalization of marijuana. Weed. Pot.

That substance that most experts say is not harmful but seems to be causing so much confusion and trouble that trying to figure it all out could lead one to heroin.
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Quincy Police officers have stated that they found a stolen 2004 Red Sox World Series Championship ring during a raid on a prescription pill operating ring on Tuesday. Responding officers also seized a large amount of drugs and money during the raid at the home located on 97 Hall Place in Quincy.

A resident of the home on Hall Place, Dennis Leclair, was arrested by Quincy Police officers following the raid. He is currently being charged with a slew of crimes, some of which include: subsequent-offense distribution of oxycodone, subsequent-offense possession of oxycodone with intent to distribute, conspiracy to violate drugs laws and receiving stolen property worth more than $250. Leclair will face arraignment for these charges on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if he had retained an attorney prior to his arraignment.

In addition to the arrest made to Dennis Leclair, Quincy Police officers also arrested two individuals directly connected to the prescription pill ring that had been operating out of the Hall Place home belonging to Leclair. Reports have indicated that James White of Quincy, Massachusetts and George Green of Dorchester, Massachusetts were arrested on unnamed drug charges after police witnessed the two men conducting a drug deal with Dennis Leclair. Both White and Green will face arraignment on Wednesday as well.

Quincy Police officers have indicated that Leclair had been at the center of an ongoing investigation into an Oxycodone distribution ring that had been plaguing Quincy for an unknown amount of time. Quincy Police Captain John Dougan has stated that the operation based out of Leclair’s home was a “decent sized ring” and that the police department had been provided with a search warrant before the seize that took place on Tuesday. Quincy officers were preparing their raid of the Hall Place home near the on-ramp for the Southeast Expressway when they witnessed Dennis Leclair meeting with James White and George Green. This event led to the arrests of White and Green on drug related charges as police witnessing the incident have stated that it had been an apparent drug deal between the three men. Continue reading

Police officers in Duxbury, Massachusetts have arrested a man from Pembroke, Massachusetts after they discovered thousands of dollars and a variety of drugs stored inside the man’s vehicle. Officers in the area received a report of a vehicle crash and were responding on scene when they made their discovery. The call came in on Thursday just after midnight.

The crash occurred in the area of an intersection between Church Street and Tremont Street in Duxbury. Upon arriving on scene, law enforcement officials discovered that the vehicle in question had struck several sign posts before coming to a stop near the intersection. Responding police officers have indicated that based on the evidence immediately visible at the scene, they determined they had grounds for an arrest of the operator of the vehicle. The operator of the vehicle was later identified as 23 year old James Bako-Berry of Pembroke, Massachusetts. He was officially arrested at the time for driving under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, an open container of alcohol and a stop sign violation. There were no reported injuries, to the driver or otherwise, pertaining to the arrest of this particular individual. Continue reading

Police officers in Lowell, Massachusetts are being credited with breaking up a marijuana distribution ring that had been conducting business across Lowell for months prior to the arrests made last week. Lowell Police arrested two men in connection with the drug ring they had been monitoring closely over a period of time. During the arrests they were also able to recover approximately 62 pounds of marijuana from the suspects.

Accordingly to preliminary reports provided for the case, Lowell Police were able to track down and arrest 29 year old Brian Leduc and 29 year old Kevin Ros after law enforcement officials stopped the vehicle they had been traveling in on Westford Street in Lowell. Police officers believed that the vehicle was being used to distribute marijuana to different locations of the drug ring throughout the city. Shortly thereafter, police officers issued search warrants for the two men and began investigating the vehicle in question. It was at this time that nearby Chelmsford Police brought in one of their K9 police members and the dog was able to successfully identify the presence of illegal drugs inside the car.

Police officers searched the vehicle and found 50 pounds of marijuana inside. Following this discovery, they later searched a residence located at 105 Gates Street and further recovered an additional 12 pounds of marijuana from the home. It was not made clear at this time if the residence on Gates Street had been occupied by either of the two apprehended suspects. Continue reading

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