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No coronavirus pre-trial release for man charged with plotting to rob a Mexican-cartel cocaine stash house

A federal judge in Boston ruled yesterday that Rico Perry is too dangerous to release before he comes to trial on charges of plotting the armed robbery of what turned out to be a non-existent cocaine stash house and that his asthma is mild enough he faces no extra risks from Covid-19 while behind bars.

Perry is one of two men currently charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine, the result of a sting operation against them by ATF that ended with their arrests at a self-storage facility on McClellan Highway in East Boston on Jan. 28. Prosecutors say a third man will be charged - but that their case against him has been slowed because ATF investigators on the case have themselves contracted the virus. Perry faces between ten years and life if convicted.

On April 10, Perry's attorney filed a motion to have him immediately released from detention at the Plymouth County House of Correction because he has asthma and the CDC has said that people with asthma are at risk of greater complications if infected with Covid-19.

But in a ruling yesterday, Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler said Perry is fine right where he is, that he has a long criminal record that includes convictions for witness intimidation, armed robbery with intent to commit murder, breaking and entering in the nighttime with the intent to commit a felony and assault and battery, that he was facing new state charges at the time of his arrest and that his asthma didn't really sound that bad - his evidence consisted of a single 2018 record from Boston Medical Center that he'd been given a prescription for an inhaler and should check back in three months later.

Considering the totality of the circumstances, the defendants serious criminal history and the unrefuted evidence at the detention hearing, this court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant presents a danger to the community and that there are no conditions of release that can be framed. This court adds that while the defendant does have ties to the community, his criminal history reflects several defaults. The court finds by a fair preponderance of the evidence that the defendant constitutes a risk of nonappearance. ...

The [Covid-19] submissions by the defendant raise systematic and not particularized concerns about the facility where the defendant is being detained. The defendant does cite any special, extraordinary or changed medical circumstances that would make him more vulnerable or more at risk than other detainees in the institution where he is being detained. Therefore this court finds that release is not warranted at this time.

According to an affidavit by an ATF agent on the case, Perry was recruited by an acquaintance named Keith Cousin to look for drug stash houses in the Boston area they could knock over. A convicted drug dealer now working with the feds heard about their plans and contacted ATF - where agents organized a sting, in which an undercover agent played a mule bringing large shipments of cocaine from a Mexican cartel site in Texas to a Boston-area stash house.

In a Jan. 7 meeting arranged by the drug dealer, the agent described himself as a "disgruntled cocaine courier," who was particularly pissed the cartel was making him travel all the way from El Paso, TX to Boston and had yet to pay him for two recent trips and so was looking to cash out, in a big way.

The next day, the affidavit and a separate document filed by prosecutors say, the agent met with Cousin and Perry at the Hilton Garden Inn on Boardman Street in East Boston to begin mapping out just how they would burst into the alleged stash house, point a machine gun at one of the two guards the cartel always had stationed there. then use him as a human shield to get other people in the house to cough up all the cocaine. Because the cocaine would have the cartel's stamp on it, they couldn't sell the coke on the street, but would instead cook it down into crack, according to the affidavit.

The robbery was set for Jan. 28; Perry and Cousin met the undercover agent at the CubeSmart self-storage place on McClellan Highway. They went into the locker the agent had rented, allegedly to hold the drugs after the robbery. According to the affidavit, both Perry and Cousin took off some of their clothes to prove they were not wearing any wires and so were not actually undercover agents or informants. They then asked the actual undercover agent to do the same and he did.

Perry and Cousin then left the locker, allegedly to go get the still unindicted other conspirator, but they were arrested as they got into their car.

Innocent, etc.

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PDF icon Affidavit by ATF agent643.64 KB


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Comments

Magoo grew a beard and well looks pretty darn Magoo. Magoo.

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are instantly rendered insane, neutered and incontinent by the magoo utterances

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Not to sound too flip- but that's the first news story I've seen reference crack and not fentanyl what seems like a long time

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FREEZE!!

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Sounds like entrapment to me....

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