News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2003

Springfield Residents Plead Guilty to Distributing Crack Cocaine

Springfield, MA….Two Springfield men were convicted yesterday in federal court of distributing crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin.

Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New England; and United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan announced that Alexander PEREZ, age 27, and Dycia SANTOS, age 34, both of Springfield, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor to one count of conspiring to distribute crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin.

At the plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that, had the case proceeded to trial, the Government's evidence would have proven that between October of 2002 and February 11, 2003 PEREZ and SANTOS, together with six co-defendants distributed at least one kilogram of cocaine per week in Springfield and Holyoke. During the execution of search warrants of February 11, 2003, DEA agents seized two kilograms of cocaine, 200 grams of crack cocaine, eight grams of heroin and over $70,000 in cash.

The indictment was the result of a yearlong investigation of crack cocaine and cocaine trafficking in Springfield and Holyoke, which involved four months of Court, authorized electronic surveillance by DEA's Springfield Task Force.

Judge Ponsor scheduled sentencing for PEREZ of February 25, 2004 and for SANTOS on March 1, 2004. Both defendants face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release, and a $1 million fine.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Springfield Gang Task Force.