cannabisnews.com: Three Men Convicted for Marijuana Distribution! 





Three Men Convicted for Marijuana Distribution! 
Posted by FoM on February 24, 1999 at 09:01:37 PT

BOSTON Three men were convicted recently in federal court of participating in a long-running conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
United States Attorney Donald K. Stern, George C. Festa, Special Agent in Charge of the New England Field Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and Frederick P. Aufiero, Chief of the New England Division of the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, announced that JAMES A. MYERS, age 44, residing in Lyman, Maine; JOHN P. BOLLETTIERO, JR., age 41, residing in Seabrook, New Hampshire; and HARRY GAROFANO, age 44, residing in Middleton, Massachusetts pled guilty to a federal Indictment alleging their participation in a multiple-defendant conspiracy to distribute large quantities of marijuana. MYERS also pled guilty to a separate conspiracy to launder cash proceeds from the distribution of marijuana. MYERS and GAROFANO also pled guilty to separate charges that they subscribed to and filed false federal income tax returns for the tax year 1993 that failed to report their income earned from the distribution of marijuana.At the change-of-plea hearings before U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Pelgro stated that the government was prepared to prove that co-defendant [name redacted] and others operated a wide-ranging conspiracy to distribute marijuana beginning in the mid-1970's. The conspiracy was still operating in the early 1990s and, at that time, [name redacted] was using his home at 167 Woodland Road in Newton, Massachusetts as a base of operations and a place to store marijuana, cocaine, LSD, and hashish. [name redacted]'s home was adjacent to the campus of Lasell College in the Auburndale section of Newton. In mid-1992, [name redacted] used a contact in Texas, co-defendant Louis S. Rousset, to purchase large quantities of marijuana that had been smuggled across the Mexican border into Texas. The conspirators enlisted an elderly female Texas resident to lease a ranch just south of Austin, Texas to be used as a way station and storage area for numerous bales of marijuana.At that same time, [name redacted] approached MYERS, an acquaintance of several years, and recruited him to join the conspiracy. In the fall of 1992, [name redacted] provided large sums of cash to MYERS to purchase a 40-foot flatbed truck to be used to haul the bales of marijuana from Texas to Massachusetts. MYERS took several steps to disguise the fact that the cash had come from [name redacted] and that the cash was proceeds from earlier distributions of marijuana, including converting the cash into numerous money orders in smaller amounts. MYERS then purchased the flatbed truck and constructed a hidden compartment within the body of the truck in order to transport large sums of cash to Texas and large quantities of marijuana to Massachusetts.Beginning in December 1992, MYERS made monthly trips in the truck to the Austin area while [name redacted] flew there from Boston. On each trip, numerous bales of marijuana, weighing hundreds of pounds, were driven to MYERS' home in Maine. There, the bales of marijuana were transferred to a van owned by MYERS. The marijuana loads were then driven by MYERS and BOLLETTIERO, a longtime friend of MYERS, to the [name redacted] home in Newton. The marijuana loads were then off-loaded into [name redacted]'s basement, where the bales of marijuana were broken up and re-packaged into one-pound bags for distribution to various customers in the eastern Massachusetts area. The breaking up and re-packaging of the marijuana was accomplished by [name redacted], MYERS, BOLLETTIERO, and numerous other co-defendants.In mid-1993, after making several trips to Texas, MYERS recruited GAROFANO, an out-of-work truck driver whom MYERS had known for years, to make the cross-country trips in the flatbed truck. Beginning in July 1993, GAROFANO drove the truck to Austin, picked up the marijuana, and drove it to MYERS' Maine home. From there, the marijuana was transferred to the van and driven by MYERS and BOLLETTIERO to the [name redacted] home in Newton. GAROFANO made monthly trips to Austin from July 1993 through November 1993.The conspiracy's operation came to an abrupt halt in early December 1993 when federal agents and local police officers executed a federal search warrant at the [name redacted] home and recovered substantial quantities of marijuana, cocaine, LSD, and hashish as well as drug records, over $50,000 in cash, and seven handguns.MYERS, BOLLETTIERO, and GAROFANO are the last defendants to be convicted in this case. Eight co-defendants, including [name redacted] and his wife, [name redacted], have previously pled guilty. [name redacted] was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without parole and the other co-defendants received lesser sentences. In addition, [name redacted] was ordered to forfeit to the government numerous assets, including his Newton home, a lake-front vacation home and property in Rindge, New Hampshire, rental property in Rindge, New Hampshire, and the $50,000 in cash seized from his home. The flatbed truck used to transport the marijuana has also been ordered forfeited to the government. A twelfth defendant, Richard Leddy, is in federal custody in Tucson, Arizona and is scheduled to plead guilty in Tucson later this year.Judge Stearns scheduled sentencings for the three defendants for early April 1999.This case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service, in cooperation with the Newton Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael J. Pelgro of Stern's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit and Shelbey Wright of Stern's Asset Forfeiture Unit. 
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