Career Criminal Charged With Drug And Firearm Offenses

BOSTON – A career criminal still on supervised release from a previous federal drug trafficking conviction was indicted on new drug trafficking and firearm charges today.

Damien Bynoe, 44, of Roxbury, was indicted for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine. Bynoe was arrested on Jan. 18, 2019, and has been in custody since, pending a final hearing for a supervised release violation.

According to court documents, on Jan. 18, 2019, law enforcement officers seized a loaded gun, heroin and cocaine from an apartment in Roxbury tied to Bynoe and additional amounts of heroin and cocaine from Bynoe himself.

In 2009, Bynoe was convicted in federal court in Boston of distribution of cocaine base within 1000 feet of a school. For that offense, Bynoe was sentenced to six years in prison and placed on supervised release for six years. Bynoe was still on supervised release from this earlier federal conviction when he was arrested with the gun and drugs charged in today’s indictment. Bynoe’s criminal record also includes a 2007 conviction for assault with a firearm; a 2001 conviction for distribution of cocaine in a school zone, for which he served five years in prison; and a 1991 juvenile delinquency adjudication for murder and unlawful possession of a firearm, where Bynoe shot and killed two teenagers on a Roxbury street.

On the felon in possession of a firearm charge, based on his prior criminal record, Bynoe faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to life in prison, up to five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, at least three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $1 million. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew Lelling; Kelly Brady, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, New England Field Division; and Boston Police Commissioner William Gross made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Pohl of Lelling’s Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit is prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.