BOSTON, Jan. 30, 2014—The Suffolk County Grand Jury late yesterday returned a mammoth set of indictments against nearly three dozen members of a highly organized drug trafficking network, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

The 189-count indictment charges 33 men and women targeted during Operation Limehouse, a wiretap-based investigation that began in the summer of 2012 and culminated in more than 20 arrests late last year; about a dozen additional defendants were identified during the course of the grand jury investigation. The indictments move the various cases from municipal courts across Suffolk County to Suffolk Superior Court, where they will be adjudicated.

Among those charged in the indictments are alleged importers RAPHAEL “CHI-CHI” PEGUERO (D.O.B. 1/6/70) of Dorchester, JOSE MORALES (D.O.B. 9/19/78) of Roxbury, and ALEX FLORES-PLAZA (D.O.B. 11/7/80) of Dorchester, charged with a combined 26 indictments alleging trafficking in more than 200 grams of heroin, conspiracy to traffic in heroin, money laundering, and other offenses.

Alleged top-tier distributors GEORGE CHATMAN (D.O.B. 11/17/53) of Attleboro, WILLIAM HARRIS (D.O.B. 9/11/53) of Mattapan, DAVID “DE-BO” NUNES (D.O.B. 4/10/67) of Roxbury, ANTHONY “EVIL” TAYLOR (D.O.B. 10/14/63) of Mattapan, and EDISON JOHNSON (D.O.B. 12/6/77) of Dorchester are charged with a combined 45 indictments alleging trafficking in more than 200 grams of heroin, trafficking in more than 200 grams of cocaine, money laundering, and other offenses.

Chatman, Harris, Taylor, and Johnson were additionally indicted as habitual offenders and/or armed career criminals based on convictions and state prison sentences for manslaughter, drug distribution, assault with intent to rape, assault with intent to kill, assault with intent to rob, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

“These are dangerous defendants whose records are riddled with convictions for violent crimes,” Conley said. “They are charged in this case with drug offenses, but their criminal histories speak for themselves. These are the sorts of individuals who move cocaine and heroin into and out of Boston, and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to remove them and their product from our streets.”

The indicted defendants are expected to be arraigned today and in the days to come in the Magistrate’s Session of Suffolk Superior Court.

–30–

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