BOSTON — A well-known drug dealer in the Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard section of Boston was sentenced to prison Thursday after being convicted by a Suffolk County jury last week on numerous drug and gun charges, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.
Jay Candelario, 43, of Lowell, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Eight years on the charges of trafficking fentanyl, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of suboxone with intent to distribute, illegal possession of a firearm, and illegal possession of a high-capacity magazine, and an additional five years for possession of a firearm while in the commission of a felony.
“This was an impact drug dealer in Mass and Cass who came from outside of Boston to prey upon the vulnerable people in the area,” said Hayden.
On February 13, 2021, officers from the Boston Area Drug Control Unit arrested Candelario after observing him selling drugs in the comfort area set up by the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, adjacent to the Southampton Street Shelter.
Upon Candelario’s arrest officers seized a .40-caliber Taurus pistol with a large-capacity magazine, 111 grams of fentanyl, six grams of cocaine, 42 grams of suboxone, over $3,500 in cash, drug packaging materials, and scales.
“Mr. Candelario was a major presence at Mass and Cass when the area was at its peak population point,” Hayden said. “This man used space set up by a caring organization to keep people warm on cold winter days in order to sell those same susceptible people deadly drugs for his own profit.”
In 2022 the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office launched Services Over Sentences, a program funded to help lower-level offenders in the Mass and Cass area receive the support necessary to leave the area.
Hayden said his office’s approach has been to target impact criminals in the area—drug dealers, human traffickers, violent offenders and others—while offering services or diversion programs to qualifying lower-level offenders.
“Our focus has always been on the opportunists like him who saw only one thing amid the vast hardship at Mass and Cass—the ability to make money,” Hayden said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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