NEW: Fourth RI Man Sentenced For Receiving Cocaine Through The Mail
Friday, January 18, 2013
Providence’s Jamal L. Boleman is the latest Rhode Island resident to be sentenced to federal prison on drug trafficking charges for shipping packages containing a “substantial” quantity of cocaine through the U.S. Postal Service.
In a statement issued today, United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha and Kevin M. Niland, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division announced that Boleman, 33, was sentenced yesterday to 84 months in federal prison, which will be followed by three years of supervised release, following an arrest last June on a federal warrant on drug trafficking charges.
The charges came from an investigation by U.S. Postal Inspectors into the delivery of at least two packages containing cocaine shipped in April 2011 from California to Pawtucket.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBoleman is the fourth of five defendants to be sentenced for the crime, with the fifth awaiting trial, as the U.S. Postal Inspectors began investigating a number of packages shipped from Puerto Rico and California to Rhode Island that allegedly contained upwards of 14 kilos of cocaine.
The packages were delivered by the Postal Inspectors with the help of the Rhode Island State Police High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force and led to the arrest of five individuals, who were alleged operating independently of one another.
“The distribution of illegal narcotics through the mail is an ongoing and dangerous problem,” Neronha said. “This Office is committed to working with the Postal Service and other law enforcement partners to deal aggressively with this threat to the health and safety of all Rhode Island residents.”
“The Postal Service is in the business of moving the mail and has no interest in being the unwitting accomplice to anyone using the U.S. Mail to distribute illegal drugs,” Niland added. “Postal Inspectors work diligently to rid the mail of illicit drugs by maintaining an aggressive drug parcel detection program and seeking prosecution of mailers and recipients of illegal drugs to the fullest extent of the law.”
The arrests began on March 16 of last year as Postal Inspectors and agents from the HIDTA Task Force took Alexi Ruiz, 44, into custody after he accepted a controlled delivery of a package containing roughly two kilos of cocaine.
Ruiz pled guilty in July to a two-count indictment charging him with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and possession with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.
In November, he received an 84-month sentence to be followed by five-years of supervised release.
Two weeks later, officers arrested Luis M. Camilo, a 39-year-old man from Providence, for accepting a delivery of a package shipped from Puerto Rico that contained one kilo of the drug.
Camilo pled guilt in May and was sentenced to 60 months in prison and five years of supervised release in September.
One month later, officers arrested 40-year-old Jorge Antonio Falcon-Ortiz, of Providence, after they intercepted the second of three packages containing “substantial quantities” of the drug shipped over a period of two months from Puerto Rico. Falcon-Ortiz pled guilty in November and received a 78-month sentence, which will be followed by a four-year period of supervised release.
Michael C. Capurso, a 34-year-old man from Newport and Worcester, was arrested in August of last year for allegedly receiving 2.5 kilos of cocaine from Puerto Rico. He is awaiting trial on a federal indictment which charges him with one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine, and one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Capurso has pled not guilty to the charges.
