Violent Boston gang member who posed with guns on Snapchat sentenced to more than six years in prison – New Bedford Guide

A Boston area man was convicted Friday, June 7, 2024, of illegally possessing a firearm while under house arrest on three state firearms charges.

Trevon Bell, 27, of Boston and Lynn, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 78 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Bell pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in November 2023.

As part of a 2021 investigation into a violent Boston gang, law enforcement intercepted a Snapchat chatroom consisting of individuals who regularly posted images of themselves in possession of weapons fire.

One of the people identified in the conversation was Bell, a member of the violent Boston-based Heath Street gang. Bell had been charged in three separate cases of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition in state court for which he was released to home detention with location monitoring via a GPS bracelet. However, the investigation revealed that while on bail, Bell posted numerous videos of himself in possession of firearms on Snapchat, including a video from November 24, 2021 that showed him in possession of a black Glock 9 semi-automatic. millimeter firearm. The firearm has since been recovered:

The operation was conducted as part of a Strike Force initiative of the Drug and Organized Crime Task Forces (OCDETF), which provides for the creation of permanent multi-agency task forces working side by side next to each other in the same place. This co-located model allows agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the world's largest drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organizations. More information about the OCDETF program is available here:

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; James M. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Boston Division; and Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Division, made the announcement. Special assistance in the investigation was provided by the Boston, Quincy and Lynn police departments as well as the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department. Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Pohl of the Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit prosecuted the case.