Phillip Williams, Cocaine Trafficking, Massachusetts 2022

BOSTON – A Boston-area drug trafficking organization (DTO) has suffered a significant blow as one of its distributors, Phillip Williams, 38, of Brighton, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to a drug trafficking conspiracy involving cocaine and cocaine base.

Williams, a drug distributor within the DTO, pleaded guilty on August 8, 2022 to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper scheduled sentencing for November 17, 2022.

According to the charging documents, beginning in November 2018, law enforcement investigated a DTO in which Williams was a distributor. The DTO was comprised of Boston-based street gang members and associates in the Commonwealth Development in Brighton, formerly known as Fidelis Way, a multi-apartment public housing development. It is alleged that the DTO assumed control over multiple apartments, which they used to store, cook, package, and sell drugs – most of which consisted of cocaine or cocaine base, which the DTO supplied to customers, wholesalers, and distributors.

Williams is estimated to have distributed between approximately 100 and 200 grams of cocaine base during the course of his participation in the Fidelis Way DTO. Williams is the fifth defendant to plead guilty in the Fidelis-Way related drug conspiracy. The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty and are pending trial.

The charge of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, at least three years and up to life of supervised release and a fine of up to $1 million. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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