BOSTON – A career criminal was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston to a total of 11 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl while still on supervised release for a previous federal drug trafficking conviction.
Ozair Pereira, 35, of Brockton, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin to 10 years in prison and eight years of supervised release. In September 2022, Pereira pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl and four counts of distribution of fentanyl. For committing the offense while on federal supervised release, Pereira was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to an additional term of one year in prison, to be served consecutively to the sentence imposed by Judge Sorokin.
In 2018, Pereira and several other defendants were arrested as part of a wide-ranging investigation targeting drug trafficking and violence in Brockton. Pereira was intercepted on a court-authorized wiretap ordering heroin from a drug supplier. After pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin, Pereira was sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
On four occasions in February and March 2021, while on federal supervised release for the drug trafficking conviction, Pereira worked with co-defendant Robert Roscoe and others to distribute over 40 grams of fentanyl to cooperating witnesses and undercover agents. In October 2022, Roscoe was sentenced to 16 months in prison and three years of supervised release after previously pleading guilty to his role in the conspiracy.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy; James M. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Division; John E. Mawn, Jr., Interim Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police; Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez; and New Bedford Police Chief Paul Oliveira made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Pohl of the Narcotics & Money Laundering Unit prosecuted the case.
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