Cesar Rivera, Possession of Cocaine and Firearm, Massachusetts 2022

Cesar Rivera, 24, Gets 5 Years in Prison for Possession of Cocaine and Firearm

In a move to crack down on local crime, a Revere man was sentenced to five years in prison for possessing cocaine and a firearm while under indictment for felony charges.

Cesar Rivera, a 24-year-old Revere resident, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. The harsh sentence was a result of Rivera's guilty plea to one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and fentanyl and one count of receipt of a firearm while under indictment for felony charges in December 2022.

The incident dates back to December 2020 when Rivera was wanted on outstanding warrants on multiple state gun cases for which he had failed to respond to court summonses or appear in court for over a year. On December 22, 2020, Rivera was located at a carwash in Malden and subsequently arrested. At the time of his arrest, Rivera was carrying approximately 28 grams of crack cocaine and a Glock firearm.

It was also revealed that two months prior to his arrest, Rivera and his associate, Phillips Charles, had a brief encounter with a rival gang member, his girlfriend, and their one-year-old child at the Square One Mall in Saugus. After the encounter, Rivera and Charles pursued the victim and his family and fired at least seven rounds into their vehicle. Following Rivera's arrest, ballistics examination of the Glock firearm recovered from Rivera in December 2020 revealed that it had been used in the October 2020 shooting.

Phillips Charles, Rivera's associate, was also sentenced in September 2022 to 78 months in prison and four years of supervised release for his involvement in the shooting.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip A. Mallard of the Organized Crime & Gang Unit and was 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.

The investigation was a collaborative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division; the Massachusetts State Police; the Middlesex County and Suffolk County District Attorney's Offices; and the Boston Police Department.

Mandatory Facts:

1. Defendant/Respondent Name: Cesar Rivera

2. Exact Criminal Charges: Possession with intent to distribute cocaine and fentanyl and receipt of a firearm while under indictment for felony charges

3. City and State: Revere, Massachusetts

4. Exact Date: December 2022 (sentencing), December 2020 (arrest)

5. Sentence or Outcome: Five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release

6. Dollar Amounts: N/A

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/revere-man-sentenced-five-years-prison-drug-and-firearm-possession