Esmond Street Career Criminal Sentenced to 16 Years for Drug Trafficking

BOSTON – A Boston man was sentenced yesterday to 16 years in federal prison for drug trafficking and firearm charges.

Gerald Smith, a/k/a “G-Man,” 38, of Boston, was sentenced yesterday to 16 years in prison and five years of supervised release.  In October 2014, Smith pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to two counts of distribution of cocaine base, possession with intent to distribute 280 grams or more of cocaine base, and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Smith was a long-time Boston-based crack cocaine trafficker who regularly sold crack cocaine in the Esmond Street neighborhood of Boston, an area plagued by drug, gun, and gang violence.  During their investigation, federal agents used a cooperating witness and an undercover police officer to purchase crack cocaine from Smith over a dozen times. When agents executed a search warrant at an apartment in Revere used by Smith, they seized nearly a kilogram of cooked crack cocaine ready for street-level sale and a loaded firearm.

Due to his criminal history, Smith faced a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence for possessing a firearm and a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for possessing more than 280 grams of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.

At the sentencing hearing, the government recommended that the Court sentence Smith to 16 years in prison based, in large part, on Smith’s criminal record. This is Smith’s fourth drug trafficking conviction and he has previously been sentenced to state prison twice before for drug trafficking.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Michael J. Ferguson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boston Field Division, made the announcement.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Pohl of Ortiz’s Organized Crime Strike Force Unit.