Revere Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Drug and Firearm Possession

BOSTON – A Revere man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for possessing cocaine and fentanyl as well as receiving a firearm while under indictment for felony charges. 

Cesar Rivera, 24, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. In December 2022, Rivera pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and fentanyl and one count of receipt of a firearm while under indictment for felony charges. 

In December 2020, Rivera was wanted on outstanding warrants on multiple state gun cases for which he had failed to respond to court summonses or appear in court for over a year. On Dec. 22, 2020, Rivera was located at a carwash in Malden and subsequently arrested. At the time of his arrest, Rivera was carrying approximately 28 grams of crack cocaine, fentanyl and a Glock firearm. 

In October 2020, two months prior to his arrest, while wanted on the outstanding warrants, Rivera and Phillips Charles had a brief encounter with a rival gang member, his girlfriend and their one-year-old child at the Square One Mall in Saugus. After the encounter, Rivera and Charles pursued the victim and his family and fired at least seven rounds into their vehicle. Following Rivera’s arrest, ballistics examination of the Glock firearm recovered from Rivera in December 2020 revealed that it had been used in the October 2020 shooting. 

In September 2022, Charles was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 78 months in prison and four years of supervised release.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; James M. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division; John E. Mawn, Jr., Interim Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police; and Malden Police Chief Kevin Molis made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Massachusetts State Police; the Middlesex County and Suffolk County District Attorney’s Offices; and the Boston Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip A. Mallard of the Organized Crime & Gang Unit prosecuted the case.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.