DOJ Seal

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney's Office
District of Massachusetts

For Immediate Release

Friday, September 8, 2017
William D. Weinreb
, United States Attorney
Contact: Christina DiIorio-Sterling

Jamaica Plain Man Sentenced to Over 14 Years for Distributing Cocaine and Heroin

BOSTON – A cocaine and heroin distributor for the Boston street gang, Columbia Point Dawgs (CPD), was sentenced today in federal court in Boston.

Fancisco Arias, 35, of Jamaica Plain, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 175 months in prison and five years of supervised release. In May 2016, Arias pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute over five kilograms of cocaine, and over one kilogram of heroin. Arias, one of 48 defendants tied to the CPD, was indicted in June 2015.

Arias, was involved in the importation and distribution of at least five kilograms of cocaine and over four kilograms of heroin in Massachusetts, along with other members and associates of the gang. According to documents filed in court, the CPD, also known on the street as “the Point,” was Boston’s largest and most influential citywide gang. The criminal organization started in the 1980s in the former Columbia Point Housing Development (now Harbor Point) and, over the years, gang members established drug trafficking crews throughout Boston. It is alleged that the CPD was responsible for the distribution of multiple kilo quantities of heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, and oxycodone throughout Boston and Maine.

Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb; Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Michael J. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division; Mickey D. Leadingham, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division; John Gibbons, U.S. Marshal for the District of Massachusetts; Colonel Richard D. McKeon, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Suffolk County Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins; Boston Police Commissioner William Evans; and Commissioner Thomas Turco of the Massachusetts Department of Correction, made the announcement.

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Boston Field Division