Jose Perez, Drug and Firearm Charges, Massachusetts 2024

State: Massachusetts
Category: Drug Trafficking|Violent Crime
Source: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/two-time-convicted-felon-sentenced-over-11-years-prison-drug-and-firearm-charges" style="color:#cc0000;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">DOJ Press Release ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Â Ã¢â‚¬â€

BOSTON – A high-speed chase through the streets of Lexington, Massachusetts, ended in a crash and a cache of illicit substances for a Lynn man.

Jose Perez, 27, was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for drug and firearm charges, including one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and one count of felon in possession of a firearm.

On December 2022, police officers attempted to stop a vehicle speeding through Lexington, Mass., that Perez was driving. Instead of pulling over, Perez accelerated and engaged in a high-speed escape attempt, traveling more than 85 miles per hour on residential streets, crashing head-first into another vehicle, and ultimately losing control and colliding into a post.

As Perez exited the vehicle, a loaded Glock 34X 9mm semi-automatic handgun dropped to the ground. Perez and Del Rio, his passenger, then fled and led officers on a foot chase through a Stop and Shop parking lot. After officers apprehended Perez and Del Rio, Perez was found with over $2,000 cash in his pockets.

Officers also recovered a bag of cocaine and a bag containing 44 smaller, individually wrapped bags of fentanyl in Del Rio’s flight path, as well as a bag of cocaine in the vehicle Perez had crashed.

Judge F. Dennis Saylor sentenced Perez to 142 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Perez was on supervised release in connection with two prior federal convictions: one in 2017 for engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license, and one in 2020 for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and felon in possession of a firearm.

Perez’s status as a felon bars him from possessing a firearm. In May 2024, co-defendant Henry Del Rio pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2025.