FORMER LATIN KINGS GANG LEADER SENTENCED TO OVER 21 YEARS
IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING OFFENSES

Boston, MA... The former Minister of Defense for the Lawrence Chapter of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation was sentenced on Friday, June 23, 2006, to over 21 years in federal prison for selling cocaine and crack cocaine.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Kenneth W. Kaiser, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New England; Colonel Mark Delainey, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Glenn N. Anderson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and John Romero, Chief of the Lawrence Police Department, announced today that EDWIN SERRANO, a/k/a “King Psycho,” age 29, of 71 Newbury Street, Lawrence, Massachusetts, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf to 21 years and 10 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by 8 years of supervised release.

At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that, if the case had proceeded to trial, the evidence would have shown that SERRANO, who had been identified as a member of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation and the former Minister of Defense for its Lawrence Chapter, made two sales of cocaine (including one sale of cocaine hydrochloride and one sale of crack cocaine) to a cooperating witness (“CW”) working for a joint federal/state task force investigating gang activity in Lawrence and Lowell Massachusetts. In recorded statements made during the course of these drug purchases, SERRANO offered to sell the CW a firearm and attempted to recruit the CW to go to New York to kidnap someone who SERRANO claimed had “burned” him for $40,000.

The case was investigated by a joint federal, state and local Task Force led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Other agencies actively involved in the Task Force’s activities include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Massachusetts State Police, the Lawrence Police Department, the Essex County Sheriff’s Department, and the Essex County District Attorney’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Sullivan’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

Press Contact: Samantha Martin, (617) 748-3139

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