Criminal Charges:
Man charged in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts for:
- Conspiracy to Distribute and to Possess with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine, in violation of 21 USC §§ 841 (a)(1), (b)(1)(A) and 846
- Conspiracy to Launder Monetary Instruments, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956 (h)
City, County, and Court:
- Boston, Massachusetts
- United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Case Overview:
Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration investigated a drug trafficking organization that distributed methamphetamine in the greater Boston area. The organization received its drug supply from California. Packages were shipped from to west coast to Boston using various parcel services. Payment for the drugs was provided with deposits into joint bank accounts with various financial institutions, to which members of the organization on both coasts had access. Like many drug organizations, this one was infiltrated and revealed to authorities by an informant, resulting in the arrest and indictment of 13 men in United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. A leader of the organization retained Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer, John L. Calcagni III, to defend him in this matter.
Case Result: Supervised Release.
Attorney Calcagni miraculously secured his client’s release on bail, overcoming a rebuttable presumption of no bail in federal drug cases. He also negotiated a plea agreement with the government on the man’s behalf. The client’s exposure was extraordinarily high. The statute he was accused of violating called for a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, and up to life imprisonment, upon conviction. His attributable drug weight exceeded 4.5 kilograms of methamphetamine. The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines called for 292 – 360 months, based on the severity of the crime and the man’s overall criminal history. However, Attorney Calcagni was able to obtain a special outcome for this client. Given the passage of time from arrest to sentencing, his achievement and maintenance of sobriety for several years, many contributions to the community, employment, family support, and other rehabilitative efforts, the man ultimately received a sentence of supervised release with no jail.