A Newton man with a criminal record has been put behind bars again, this time for a stretch exceeding eight years, for his role in peddling cocaine and illegal firearms, law enforcement officials said.
38-year-old Shawn Craig, who had previously faced the long arm of the law for firearm misdemeanors, was handed a 99-month prison sentence on Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris followed by a three-year period of supervised release after he entered a guilty plea to charges including distribution of cocaine and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, the transactions for which secretly involved an undercover agent and which happened right on his home turf of Newton.
The U.S. Attorney's Office reported that Craig's illicit business dealings with the undercover operative spanned several weeks in late 2022, where on separate encounters on September 12, October 20, and October 26, Craig supplied cocaine for cash. It got bold when, before their final meeting, Craig sent a photo of a weapon to the undercover agent suggesting it was up for sale; that transaction concluded with the exchange of a gun, ammunition, and yet more cocaine.
At the moment of his 2022 criminal conduct, the Justice Department highlighted, Craig was still under federal supervised release following a 2014 sentencing for keeping a stolen firearm and another with an altered serial number, demonstrating a pattern of recidivism that undermines the community's sense of security and challenges the effectiveness of the correctional system in achieving genuine rehabilitation.
Officials including Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy, ATF Special Agent James Ferguson, Interim Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police John E. Mawn, Jr., Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, and Newton Police Chief John F. Carmichael Jr., together with assistance from the U.S. Probation Office, were all instrumental in bringing the case to a closure with Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaitlin R. O’Donnell spearheading the prosecution efforts.
