Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: SAMANTHA MARTIN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2007 PHONE: (617) 748-3139
WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/MA SAMANTHA.MARTIN@USDOJ.GOV
NORTH READING MAN CONVICTED OF FEDERAL
DRUG, MONEY LAUNDERING, AND TAX EVASION CHARGES
BOSTON, MA - A North Reading man was convicted late yesterday in federal court of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute over 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, money laundering, structuring financial transactions, and tax evasion.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Douglas A. Bricker, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation in Boston; and June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New England, announced that SEAN P. BUCCI, age 34, of 23 Marshall Street, North Reading, Massachusetts, was convicted by a jury sitting before Senior U.S. District Judge Morris E. Lasker on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute over 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute over 100 kilograms of marijuana, conspiracy to commit money laundering, two substantive counts of money laundering, seven substantive counts of structuring currency transactions, and four counts of tax evasion.
Evidence presented during the nine day trial proved that SEAN BUCCI was a large scale marijuana dealer who sold thousands of pounds of marijuana out of his house in North Reading and laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars through various bank accounts owned by he and his mother, CATHERINE BUCCI, and co-defendant in the trial. The jury acquitted CATHERINE BUCCI of the sole charge against her, conspiracy to commit money laundering. The evidence at trial showed that SEAN BUCCI used his drug money to buy real estate, vehicles, a boat, and for extensive travel to, and gambling in, Aruba.
“A major supplier of marijuana in Massachusetts has successfully been removed from the streets and stripped of his illegal profits and the items he purchased with them,” commented U.S. Attorney Sullivan. “I would like to thank the federal, state and local investigative agencies who worked so diligently on this case to bring Sean Bucci to justice.”
“It is important to note this filing season that income from all sources, legal and illegal, is taxable,” commented IRS Special Agent in Charge Bricker. “Money laundering is tax evasion in progress.”
After their guilty verdict, the jury returned a judgment of forfeiture against SEAN BUCCI. Among other things, the jury returned a general forfeiture judgment of $2.7 million against BUCCI, and judgments of forfeiture of his house at 23 Marshall Street in North Reading, a 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche SUV, a boat, and $35,000 in a bank account.
Judge Lasker scheduled sentencing for May 24, 2007. SEAN BUCCI faces a maximum term of life in prison, and a potential mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years, to be followed by 8 years of supervised release, and a $4 million fine.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, the Massachusetts State Police, the Haverhill, Lowell, Salem, Wilmington, and North Reading Police Departments, the Essex County District Attorney’s Drug Task Force, and the Essex County Sheriff’s Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter K. Levitt in Sullivan’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit and U.S. Department of Justice Trial Attorney John P. McAdams of the Tax Division.
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