Massachusetts Man Sentenced for Trafficking Methamphetamine Through the Mail

BOSTON – A Massachusetts man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston after receiving more than 30 packages of methamphetamine through the mail.

Robert Annette, 58, of Somerville and Provincetown, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Leo S. Sorokin to two years in prison and four years of supervised release. In November 2016, Annette pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute methamphetamine.

From approximately 2011 through October 2013, Annette and others trafficked methamphetamine through the United States mail. Annette collected packages of methamphetamine sent to him from San Diego by co-defendant Leonard Leseman. In 2012, a Postal Inspector, conducting a routine drug interdiction, located a suspicious package sent by Leseman and addressed to a fictitious name at Annette’s Somerville residence. When the Inspector attempted to deliver the package, Annette refused receipt. From then on, Annette arranged for a network of friends to receive the packages. In total, Leseman mailed more than 30 packages containing methamphetamine to various addresses provided by Annette. During the investigation, law enforcement officers also seized packages containing methamphetamine that Leseman sent to customers in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie, Pennsylvania.

Leseman and Annette communicated via text message to discuss the logistics for orders, shipments and payments. For example, regarding a package that Leseman sent Annette, Leseman advised him: “You’ll see 3 blind mice eating ice cream.” After Leseman mailed the package from San Diego, Postal Inspectors in Massachusetts seized the package and opened it pursuant to a search warrant. Inside the package were three toy mice and an ice cream maker with four ounces of methamphetamine hidden inside.

Five individuals involved in this activity have pleaded guilty and four have been sentenced. In September 2017, Leseman was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Steven Marszalkowski, formerly of Provincetown, was sentenced to 13 months in prison in August 2017; and Scott Hill, formerly of Randolph, was sentenced to 42 months in prison in April 2017. Lawrence Ligocki, of Chelsea, is awaiting sentencing. The government has filed charges against a sixth individual, Dennis Villas of Seattle, Wash., who is scheduled to plead guilty in April 2018 before U.S. Senior District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Raymond Moss, Acting Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Field Division; and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today. Investigative assistance was provided by the U.S. Postal Inspector Service in San Diego and Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Provincetown and Truro Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys James E. Arnold and Craig E. Estes of Lelling’s Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit prosecuted the case.