BOSTON - A Bourne, Mass. man was sentenced on Thursday, Dec. 3 for distributing heroin on Cape Cod.
Antone “Tank" Andrade, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel to 120 months in prison, four years of supervised release, and forfeiture of $10,890. Andrade pleaded guilty in August 2015 to conspiring to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, over 100 grams of heroin.
From May 2013 to August 2014, Andrade sold over 100 grams of heroin and 100 grams of cocaine to individuals cooperating in a government investigation. Andrade was recorded bragging about the quality of the heroin he was peddling on Cape Cod; specifically, he told a cooperating witness that his heroin came straight from Colombia, saying “that ain’t no Hyannis garbage." Andrade was also recorded talking about another individual who was selling heroin on Cape Cod, stating that “dope fiends are falling out," in an apparent reference to drug overdoses occurring in the Bourne and Falmouth areas.
Andrade was arrested in August 2014 along with another Cape Cod drug dealer, Duane Gomez, 40, of Falmouth, who was sentenced in September 2015 to 87 months in prison for conspiring to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin.
This case was brought as part of the federal response to the growing opioid abuse epidemic in Massachusetts and other New England states. Heroin is highly addictive, and users can quickly develop a tolerance, prompting them to seek higher potencies and greater quantities of the narcotic. Between 2000 and 2014, opioid overdose deaths have more than tripled with a spike in recent years in Massachusetts.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Michael J. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boston Field Division; Colonel Richard D. McKeon, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Barnstable County District Attorney Michael D. O’Keefe; Edward A. Dunne, Chief of the Falmouth Police Department; Dennis R. Woodside, Chief of the Bourne Police Department; Rodney Collins, Chief of the Mashpee Police Department; and James M. Cummings, Barnstable County Sheriff, made the announcement today. The case was investigated by the Cape Cod Drug Task Force and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys William F. Bloomer and Brian A. Pérez-Daple of Ortiz’s Criminal Division.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
