Armed Career Criminal Sentenced To 15 Years For Federal Firearms Violations

BOSTON – A former Mattapan man was sentenced today in federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Aylis Dryden, 27, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to 15 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. In January 2013, Dryden pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition in violation of federal gun laws.

At approximately 8:00 p.m. on April 7, 2010, four Boston Police officers were on routine patrol in an unmarked cruiser in the vicinity of the Heath Street housing development in Jamaica Plain when they observed a large group of people gathered, drinking from open containers of alcohol. The officers observed Dryden act suspiciously and make adjustments to his center front waistband, prompting one of the officers to ask Dryden if he was carrying a gun in his waistband. Although Dryden initially denied having a gun, he inadvertently revealed it when he lifted his shirt at the officers’ request. Ultimately, officers seized the gun as he attempted to flee. Dryden, a previously convicted felon, was arrested and transported in a cruiser, where the officers found additional ammunition.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Eugenio A. Marquez, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Boston Field Office, and Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle L. Dineen Jerrett and Lisa Asiaf Schlatz of Ortiz’s Health Care Fraud Unit.