Springfield Man Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges in Mason Square Area

BOSTON, MA—A Springfield man was convicted today in federal court of two counts of possession and distribution of crack cocaine.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and James C. Burrell, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division; William Bennett, Hampden County District Attorney; Colonel Marian J. McGovern, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Commissioner William Fitchet of the Springfield Police Department; and Michael J. Ashe, Jr. Hampden County Sheriff, announced today that MAURICE SPENCER, 32, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor to two counts of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of five grams or more of Cocaine Base.

A total of nine individuals, including SPENCER, were originally charged in October 2009 as the result of a joint effort between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to identify, infiltrate, disrupt, and dismantle street gangs in the Mason Square area. SPENCER, who has been classified by the Springfield Police Department as an associate of the Bristol Street Posse, was involved in drug trafficking activity and associated crimes of violence in the Mason Square area.

At today’s plea hearing, the prosecutor told the court that had the case proceeded to trial, the government’s evidence would have proven that SPENCER sold five grams or more of crack cocaine in May 2009 to a cooperating witness working with the Western Massachusetts Gang Task Force. Judge Ponsor scheduled sentencing for October 29, 2010. SPENCER faces a maximum sentence of up to 40 years' imprisonment on each count, to be followed by at least four years of supervised release, and a $2,000,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the Western Massachusetts Gang Task Force, consisting of law enforcement personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Massachusetts State Police, the Springfield Police Department, and the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office. The FBI’s Gang Task Force is assisted by the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle L. Dineen Jerrett of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Office.