Springfield Man Convicted on Drug Charges
| U.S. Attorney’s Office June 08, 2011 |
SPRINGFIELD, MA—After a three-day trial, a jury sitting in Springfield today convicted a 33-year-old man on a number of cocaine possession and distribution charges.
On April 16, 2009, Antoine Watts and another individual worked together to sell more than five grams of cocaine base to a cooperating witness. Watts was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine base and possession with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine base. U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor scheduled sentencing for November 15, 2011. He faces up to 30 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; Mark Mastroianni, Hampden County District Attorney; Colonel Marian McGovern, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Commissioner William J. Fitchet of the Springfield Police Department; and Michael J. Ashe, Jr., Hampden County Sheriff made the announcement today. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Western Massachusetts Gang Task Force, consisting of law enforcement personnel from the FBI, 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 DA’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex J. Grant of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Unit.