Revere woman sentenced in organized crime case

BOSTON ? A Revere woman with alleged mob ties will spend the next three years in prison after pleading guilty to drug trafficking-related charges, according to a press release sent Friday from Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office.Rose Cefalo, 31, pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court on Wednesday to charges of two counts of possession of heroin with intent to distribute; one count of possession of heroin with intent to distribute in a school zone; conspiracy to traffic in heroin; and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.Cefalo is associated with alleged mob captain Mark Rossetti, a man Coakley said headed “a highly organized and violent crime enterprise.”She also worked at an elementary school in Boston and conspired with another woman, Yasmani Quezada, to sell heroin and cocaine to customers during her lunch break, Coakley said in the release.Cefalo was arrested in May 2010 after a multi-agency investigation that eventually dismantled a vast criminal network in eastern Massachusetts, allegedly headed by Rossetti.Coakley said the investigation found the crime ring was involved in the trafficking of drugs, extortionate activity, money laundering, loan sharking (criminal usury), armed home invasion, kidnapping, armed robbery, illegal possession of loaded firearms, the illegal possession of a pipe bomb, assault and battery, witness intimidation, bookmaking (unlawful gaming), conspiracy and perjury, among other crimes.Cefalo is one of 31 people, including Rossetti, who was indicted in 2010 on charges of crimes related to the mob; charges that included extortion, drug trafficking, robberies, assaults and other crimes.Throughout the course of the investigation into the crime ring, authorities executed 30 search warrants on several locations and seized $1.3 million in cash associated with illegal gaming and loan sharking, $120,000 in drug money, over a kilo of heroin, 200 pounds of marijuana, nine scales, a heroin press, a police scanner, two bulletproof vests, a pipe bomb, a replica Uzi machine gun, a rifle, a loaded handgun and five motor vehicles.Many of the cases are still being prosecuted, but so far 20 people have been found guilty in Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk and Plymouth counties.