Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

BOSTON – A Boston man was sentenced today to 17 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of drug trafficking and illegal firearm possession.

Kenneth Whigham Jr., 33, of Boston, was sentenced before U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris to 17 years in prison. In October 2014, Whigham was convicted following a three-day jury trial of being a felon in possession of a firearm n and possession with intent to distribute cocaine base.

Shortly before midnight on Feb. 28, 2013, two Massachusetts State Police troopers stopped Whigham for erratic driving in the O’Neil Tunnel in Boston. A video recording of the traffic stop showed one of the troopers attempting to enter Whigham’s car as Whigham slid a loaded handgun under the front passenger seat. The troopers entered the car, found the gun – a .25 caliber Raven Arms handgun with an obliterated serial number loaded with six rounds of ammunition – and arrested Whigham. The troopers seized individually-wrapped pieces of crack cocaine packaged for sale and $666 on Whigham when they arrested him.

At today’s sentencing hearing, the prosecutor recommended that the Court sentence Whigham to 21 years in prison. The prosecutor’s recommended sentence was based in large part on Whigham’s lengthy criminal record, which included two previous federal crack cocaine distribution convictions and state convictions for unlawful possession of a firearm and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Due to his criminal history, Whigham faced a fifteen year mandatory minimum sentence for possessing the firearm.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Daniel J. Kumor, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Boston Field Division; and Colonel Timothy P. Alben of the Massachusetts State Police, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Pohl of Ortiz’s Organized Crime Strike Force Unit.