A Revere man has been handed a prison sentence of over five years following convictions for cocaine trafficking offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Francisco Restrepo Mesa, age 55, received a 68-month sentence on July 10, 2024, by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper, with an additional three years of supervised release slated after his incarceration term, per an official statement. Mesa had entered a guilty plea in April to charges including conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute significant quantities of cocaine.
Authorities detailed the case's background, highlighting an incident in March 2023 when a co-conspirator collected two kilograms of cocaine from Mesa at a stash apartment in Revere that Mesa maintained for his drug operations, and in the same search police discovered 15.5 kilograms of cocaine along with $190,750, the apartment was then under surveillance and recorded phone calls from the jail revealed to authorities that they had missed some of the drugs leading to a second search warrant being executed and the discovery of another 1.6 kilograms of cocaine hidden within the apartment's bathroom walls. The prosecution of the case was led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Ferguson, Deputy Chief of the Narcotics & Money Laundering Unit and OCDETF Lead Task Force Attorney.
The successful conviction stems from efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) that targets the upper echelons of drug trafficking operations. The OCDETF uses a multifaceted strategy involving various agencies, wherein prosecutors take the lead with the backing of intelligence-driven investigations.
In the announcement by Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and officials from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Massachusetts State Police, the emphasis was placed on the collaborative effort to disrupt criminal organizations; this successful operation is part of a broader mission to protect citizens and dismantle networks capable of causing harm on a grand scale with more information on the OCDETF program available to the public online.
