Department of Justice
For Immediate Release
Former Gang Member Sentenced for Cocaine Distribution
BOSTON – A former member of the Orchard Park Trailblazers was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for selling crack cocaine in and around Roxbury’s Orchard Gardens Housing Development.
Keon Smith, 38, of Boston, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to four years in prison and six years of supervised release, during which time Smith will be precluded from entering the Orchard Gardens Housing Development and from being in contact or associating with approximately 20 individuals from the same area. In December 2017, Smith pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of cocaine base within 1,000 feet of a school.
On Sept. 13, 2016, Smith sold crack cocaine to a cooperating witness near a school in Roxbury while on state court probation for another drug offense. According to court documents, Smith was convicted in 2001 of voluntary manslaughter and firearms possession and, since being released from state prison has been convicted of possessing an illegal substance with intent to distribute.
Smith is one of 12 defendants arrested and charged in June 2017 following a nearly two-year investigation into the high concentration of crime in and around the Orchard Gardens Development, the largest publically funded housing development in Roxbury, which is also adjacent to area schools and Dudley Square. According to court documents, the crime stems, in part, from the illegal activities of the members and associates of the Orchard Park Trailblazers, who allegedly have active feuds with rival gangs throughout the city. Smith is the 11th defendant to be sentenced in this case.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Mickey D. Leadingham, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division; and Boston Police Commissioner William Evans made the announcement today.
###