A Grove Hall man was sentenced to 10 years in state prison last week after community leaders took their concerns about his drug distribution center to law enforcement partners, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

LARRY BLUE (D.O.B. 7/14/67) was convicted Wednesday of trafficking in cocaine in a school zone, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, and possession of a Class D substance. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Donovan sentenced him to 10 years on the gun as an armed career criminal and a series of shorter terms on the other convictions to run concurrent with that sentence.

“We got this result because members of the Grove Hall community brought us their concerns and we listened,” said Conley, who assigned the deputy chief of his Gang Unit to prosecute the case. “Larry Blue was at the center of guns, drugs, and all the havoc they can wreak on an otherwise hardworking community. He was exactly the kind of neighborhood scourge that Boston Police and Suffolk prosecutors will work tirelessly to take off the street.”

Throughout 2008, Conley said, members of the DA’s Grove Hall Safe Neighborhood Initiative heard multiple complaints about Blue, his Lawrence Avenue residence, and the cocaine he sold inside. After weeks of further investigation and controlled drug purchases from Blue, members of the Boston Police District 2 Drug Control Unit worked to obtain a search warrant for his home and person.

On Dec. 26, 2008, Boston Police executed that warrant. They seized from Blue’s apartment a loaded .45 caliber semiautomatic Glock handgun, 165 individually-packaged bags of cocaine, two scales, and more than $1,500 in cash. In a basement storage area common to all the building’s residents, they recovered a .25 caliber Iver Johnson handgun. Measurements conducted by Boston Police demonstrated that Blue’s residence was less than 1,000’ from the Martin Luther King Middle School.

It took a Suffolk Superior Court jury just two hours to convict Blue of all charges except the one stemming from the gun in the basement storage area. At a second set of proceedings later the same day, Blue admitted that he had previously been convicted of firearms and drug offenses in state and federal courts, setting the stage for enhanced repeat offender penalties under Massachusetts law.

“This was a strong investigation, an effective prosecution, and a harsh sentence,” Conley said. “This is how the system works when we have close partnerships with the community.”

Blue was represented at trial by attorney Arnold Abelow.