BOSTON, May 25, 2016—A Boston drug trafficker was sentenced to more than a decade behind bars after Suffolk prosecutors proved that he and another defendant repeatedly sold heroin and possessed almost a pound of it in their Roslindale stash house, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury on Friday convicted ELIEL “TONY” FIGUEROA (D.O.B. 2/9/83) of trafficking in more than 200 grams of heroin and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute after about a week of testimony stemming from his 2013 arrest. At a sentencing hearing yesterday, Judge Linda Giles today sentenced him to 12 years in state prison.

Evidence and testimony introduced by Assistant District Attorneys Kathleen Celio and Elizabeth Burke of the DA’s Narcotics Unit proved that Figueroa and another man distributed heroin to undercover officers, leading to the execution of search warrants at two locations and the seizure of 450 grams of heroin; a smaller quantity of cocaine; more than $10,000 in cash; and scales, cutting agents, and packaging materials consistent with high-level drug distribution.

“Massachusetts law contemplates heroin trafficking along a spectrum from 18 grams to 200 or more grams,” Conley said. “Investigators in this case recovered some 450 grams of heroin from this defendant’s stash house. Consider as a matter of scale that a single dose of heroin is about one-tenth of a gram. When opiate overdoses kill more people in Suffolk County than firearms and car crashes combined, trafficking heroin is not a victimless crime.”

Members of the Boston Police Drug Control Unit and Drug Enforcement Administration led the investigation, which yielded evidence that Figueroa, who claimed residences on Massachusetts Avenue in the South End and Unity Way in Roslindale, made daily trips to the Blue Ledge Drive stash house and then drove to various north shore locations. Undercover investigators arranged multiple drug transactions with Figueroa, who either dispatched or drove his co-defendant, LUIS SOSA (D.O.B. 4/26/87), to locations where Sosa exchanged drugs for cash.

Sosa pleaded guilty last year and received a 10-year prison term. A third defendant, NELSON GONZALEZ (D.O.B. 2/20/87) of Roslindale, will be tried separately. Figueroa was represented by attorney John Cicilline.

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All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt