By Rebecca McGregor –
On Thursday, December 15, 2022 by U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin sentenced Damian Cortez, 34, of Quincy, Massachusetts to eight years in prison and three years of supervised release.
In June 2022, Cortez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.
Cortez is one of 10 defendants indicted together in June 2020 as part of a broader federal sweep targeting numerous NOB street gang members and associates in which 31 total defendants were charged.
NOB also known as Norton/Olney/Barry streets in Dorchester is a violent criminal enterprise whose members and associates are involved in numerous types of criminal activities throughout Massachusetts, including murders, attempted murders, armed robberies, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and illegal firearms offenses.
Numerous contraband items including 11 firearms, over one kilogram of fentanyl (including over 2,000 fentanyl pills manufactured to appear as commercial oxycodone pills), a commercial pill press, over 15 pounds of marijuana and approximately $36,000 in cash were recovered during the investigation.
Cortez was a fentanyl trafficker and NOB member/associate who supplied drugs to and supported various crimes on behalf of the gang.
On June 16, 2020, a search of an apartment where Cortez was residing resulted in the seizure of a commercial pill press, dyes, cutting agent, and over a kilogram of fentanyl, some of which was pressed into pills manufactured to appear as pharmaceutical-grade oxycodone pills, among other drug trafficking paraphernalia.
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