BOSTON - A Colombian national pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to his role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
Fredi Catano, a/k/a “Leonardo Favio Gonzalez-Patino," 35, a Columbian national previously residing in Revere, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, and one count each of distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor scheduled sentencing for June 5, 2020. Catano was indicted in May 2019.
Between November 2017 and May 2019, Catano and co-defendant Wilson Acevedo conspired to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. During that period, Catano supplied Acevedo with approximately one ounce of cocaine on multiple occasions, which Acevedo subsequently sold to a cooperating witness. On May 2, 2019, in a drug deal arranged by Acevedo, Catano sold 500 grams of cocaine to the same cooperating witness. Catano and Acevedo were arrested immediately thereafter. A search of Catano’s Revere residence resulted in the seizure of an additional half-kilogram of cocaine, drug distribution paraphernalia and approximately $13,000 in U.S. currency.
In December 2019, Acevedo pleaded guilty and is set to be sentenced on April 6, 2020.
The charges of conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine, and possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine each carries a sentence of up to 40 years in prison, a mandatory minimum of five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $5 million. Catano will be subject to deportation proceedings following his sentence. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Brian D. Boyle, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Division, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Estes of Lelling’s Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit is prosecuting the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
