Springfield Man Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges

BOSTON, MA—A Springfield man was convicted today in federal court of two counts of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine base.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; William Bennett, Hampden County District Attorney; Colonel Marian 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 JAMES COLLINS, 33, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor to two counts of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine base.

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 on two occasions in May and June 2009, COLLINS sold a total of nearly 100 grams of crack cocaine to a cooperating witness.

Judge Ponsor scheduled sentencing for January 19, 2011. COLLINS faces 10 years to life in prison, to be followed by up to a lifetime of supervised release and an $8,000,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Western Massachusetts Gang Task Force, consisting of law enforcement personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Massachusetts State Police, 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 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 Alex J. Grant of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Unit.