Modesto Cruz Sentenced to Prison Drug & Firearm Charges, Plot to Kill a Police Officer Revealed During Investigation

A Lynn, MA man who discussed murdering a Lynn Police officer was sentenced to 188 months in prison.

U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper sentenced Modesto Cruz, 37, to 188 months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release. In March, Cruz pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin, distribution of heroin, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

In 2012, while Cruz was on pretrial release from a 2010 Lynn gun arrest, a cooperating witness working with the FBI’s North Shore Gang Task Force made four controlled buys of over 100 grams of heroin from Cruz. During the course of those recorded buys, Cruz and the cooperating witness talked about Cruz’s plan to kill one of the Lynn Police officers that had arrested him on the gun charge. An undercover law enforcement officer, posing as a hitman, was ultimately introduced to Cruz by the cooperating witness. Cruz and the undercover talked about the price and logistics of the hit on the police officer. Cruz was arrested the next day.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Jeffrey S. Sallet, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett; Colonel Timothy Alben, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger; and Essex County Sheriff Frank G. Cousins, Jr. made the announcement today.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s North Shore Gang Task Force, which consists of the FBI; the ATF; the Massachusetts State Police; the Lynn, Chelsea and Revere Police Departments; and the Essex County Sheriff’s Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Ortiz’s Organized Crime and Gang Strike Force Unit.