Notice of Court Proceedings

Contact Person: Lance Crick (864) 282-2100

Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Beth Drake announced today that a sentencing hearing has been set for Thursday, January 12, 2017, at 2:00 P.M. in the federal courthouse in Greenville in the case of the United States v. Melvin Boswell, Jr. Melvin Boswell, Jr., age 48, of Greenville, South Carolina, pled guilty on July 12, 2016, to conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and possessing firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Evidence presented by the government during the guilty plea hearing last year established that on August 20, 2015, Greenville Police Department Officers arrested Boswell at a business in Greenville County after Boswell removed his ankle monitor while on bond for other charges. While searching Boswell’s person and a rental car Boswell had driven to the business, police found: (1) 10 firearms (one of which was stolen); (2) numerous pieces of ammunition; (3) in excess of $70,000 worth of cocaine, crack cocaine, and heroin; (4) digital scales; and (5) in excess of $7000 in U.S. Currency. At the time Boswell possessed these items, he was a convicted felon.

Boswell was arrested during the initiation of “Operation Real-Time.” The goal of this program is to identify individuals for federal prosecution with significant criminal histories who continue to actively possess firearms in the Greenville community. In addition to GPD and ATF, Real Time’s core partners include the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services, the South Carolina Highway Patrol, United States Probation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the 13^th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, and the United States Attorney’s Office. Since August of 2015, the initiative has resulted in the expedited federal prosecution of some 70 defendants and seizure of approximately 100 firearms as well as assorted ammunition from prohibited persons.

Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller and his department were one of the first partners on board for this initiative. “This multi-agency partnership endeavors to keep our communities safe and reduce firearms violence through ‘real time’ identification of dangerous individuals who seek to disrupt our streets and communities with firearms-driven violence.”

U.S. Attorney Beth Drake commended the partnership between the state and federal agencies that led to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Attorney’s Office picking the case up, “We work best when we work together. This ‘real time’ identification of high risk offenders is smart policing, and we welcome the opportunity to work alongside our state chiefs and sheriffs in taking violent repeat offenders out of our communities.”

The case was investigated by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration working in conjunction with the Greenville Police Department and the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Andy Moorman of the Greenville office handled the case.

#####