For Immediate Release:
December 03, 2008
Contact: Special Agent Tony Pettigrew
Number: 617-557-2138
Jury Convicts Three Drug Traffickers as Part of Boston Conspiracy
DEC 03--  BOSTON, MA - Three Boston-area men were convicted today in federal court of drug trafficking charges.
Kevin L. Lane, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England, United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Colonel Mark Delaney, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State announced today that 
MICHAELGRIFFIN , 44, of Newton, 
DAVID VENEY , 48, of Boston, and 
RICHARDCOLLADO , 51, of Framingham, Massachusetts, were convicted by a jury sitting before U.S. District Judge NancyGertner of Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute and to Distribute Cocaine and Marijuana.
Evidence presented during the thirteen day trial proved that 
GRIFFIN, VENEY,  and 
COLLADO  were part of a large scale drug-trafficking conspiracy that distributed $40 million worth of cocaine and marijuana in Boston from 1999 to 2002.
GRIFFIN  and 
VENEY  brought a total of at least eighteen different shipments of drugs to Boston from Texas. The shipments transported by 
GRIFFIN  and 
VENEY  were typically concealed in either rented moving trucks or in a commercial 18-wheeler and were as large as 175 kilograms of cocaine and 405 pounds of marijuana each.
COLLADO  helped transport shipments of drugs to Boston and Chicago and also distributed over 50 kilograms of cocaine in Boston. Together, the defendants trafficked approximately 2,000 kilograms of cocaine and 2,000 pounds of marijuana during the course of the conspiracy.
The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on February 25, 2009.Each defendant faces a minimum of ten years' imprisonment, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and a $4,000,000 fine.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Massachusetts State Police.