NEW BEDFORD – A 54-year-old New Bedford man who Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III called a “career criminal” in a press release, was convicted after a week-long, jury trial last month of trafficking cocaine and sentenced Wednesday to serve eight to 10 years in state prison.
The charges were brought against Benjamin Duarte after New Bedford Police executed a search warrant at the defendant’s second-floor apartment, located at 407 Park St., in New Bedford on April 1, 2016, according to a press release.
As a result of their search, police recovered 51.99 grams of cocaine and 2.75 pounds of marijuana.
Rock-like cocaine and cocaine powder
The drug evidence introduced at trial consisted of 44 grams of rock-like cocaine and eight individual bags of cocaine powder, bagged in a manner consistent with street-level distribution.
There was also significant non-drug evidence, including three bottles of inositol powder, (a common substance used to mix with cocaine to increase the amount of product for sale), a grinder, multiple boxes of plastic sandwich bags, scissors, two digital scales, cut corner baggies and $1,680 suspected of being profits from prior illegal drug sales.