Member of Brockton Drug Crew Sentenced for Fentanyl Distribution and Firearm Charges

BOSTON – A member of a violent Brockton drug crew was sentenced yesterday to six years in prison for drug and firearm charges.

Placido Pereira, 36, of Brockton, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to six years in prison and three years of supervised release. In December 2022, Pereira pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl; three counts of distribution of fentanyl; one count of possession with the intent to distribute marijuana; one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and one count of possessing a firearm during a drug trafficking offense. 
  
In 2019, an investigation began into a violent Brockton-area drug crew that distributed large quantities of fentanyl throughout southeastern Massachusetts. The drug crew ran a fentanyl delivery service that encompassed all of Brockton as well as neighboring cities. Specifically, drug users/customers placed orders for fentanyl by contacting a cell phone maintained and shared by crew members, which included Pereira, Djoy Defrancesco and brothers Jason Miranda and Natalio Miranda, who worked together to deliver the fentanyl order.

A search of Pereria’s Brockton home in October 2019 resulted in the seizure of a loaded firearm with an obliterated serial number, over $5,000 in cash, digital scales, marijuana packaged for sale and the cell phone used by members of the crew to distribute fentanyl. 

According to court records, in 2017, Pereira was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm and possession with intent to distribute marijuana and was sentenced to three years in prison. In 2010, Pereira was arrested on drug trafficking charges at Boston’s Logan Airport as he returned to the United States from Cape Verde and was later sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute cocaine base. 

On Feb. 8, 2023, Natalio Miranda, the last of the four charged defendants, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl and six counts of distribution of fentanyl. Judge Stearns scheduled sentencing for June 8, 2023. On Feb. 17, 2023 Jason Miranda was sentenced to 78 months in prison and six years of supervised release. In June 2021, Defrancesco was sentenced to time-served, 20 months in prison, after previously pleading guilty.
 
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Michael J. Krol, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; John E. Mawn, Jr., Interim Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police; Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez; Brian Kyes, U.S. Marshal for the District of Massachusetts; and Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz made the announcement. Assistance was provided by the East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Whitman and Bridgewater State University Police Departments as well as the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Pohl of Rollins’ Narcotics & Money Laundering Unit prosecuted the case.