Three Plead Guilty To Large-Scale Cocaine Distribution Conspiracy

Thursday, December 5, 2024, 1:30 P.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,

BOSTON, MA.-  On Monday, a 31-year-old Honduran national living in Puerto Rico and two co-conspirators living in Massachusetts are all facing a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in federal prison after pleading guilty to their roles in a large-scale cocaine distribution operation in and around the Boston, Massachusetts, area. One of the two Massachusetts co-conspirators also pleaded guilty to distributing thousands of deadly counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl.

     On Monday, December 2, 2024, all three conspirators appeared in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to multiple federal narcotics violations.

     Linette Davila, 42, of Methuen, Massachusetts, entered guilty pleas to one count of Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute 500 Grams or More of Cocaine; and one count of Distribution of 500 Grams or More of Cocaine. Following entering the plea, Judge Gorton accepted the plea and scheduled Davila to be sentenced on February 26, 2025.

     Rony Valencia Lopez, 31, of Puerto Rico, pleaded guilty to one count of Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances. Judge Gorton accepted the plea and scheduled Lopez to be sentenced on December 10, 2024.

     Luis Pena Arias, 28, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, entered guilty pleas to one count of Conspiracy to Distribute and to Possess with Intent to Distribute 5 Kilograms or More of Cocaine; one count of Distribution of 500 Grams or More of Cocaine; and four counts of Distribution of Fentanyl. Judge Gorton accepted the guilty pleas and scheduled Arias to be sentenced on January 10, 2025.

According To The U.S. Attorney’s Office

     According to Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy, During the summer of 2023, Arias, on four separate occasions, sold over 10,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills to an undercover officer. During the same time frame, undercover law enforcement officers contacted Lopez, an associate of Arias who lived in Puerto Rico and reportedly had access to large kilogram quantities of cocaine.

     During a phone conversation and subsequent meeting in Puerto Rico, Lopez agreed to sell 15 kilograms of cocaine, which he said was located in Massachusetts.

     In September 2023, Lopez flew to Boston to make the sale and later joined Arias to meet with undercover officers at a hotel in Andover, Massachusetts, where they agreed to provide 15 kilograms of cocaine, five at a time. Later in the evening, Davila arrived at the hotel with four kilograms of cocaine. All three were taken into custody and charged. In January 2024, a Federal Grand Jury for the District of Massachusetts returned an indictment charging all three with multiple federal narcotics offenses.