Three Cape Cod Heroin Dealers Sentenced for Violent Kidnapping

BOSTON — The leader of a heroin trafficking ring that distributed the drug around Cape Cod and Pawtucket, Rhode Island has been sentenced along with two others for drugs offenses, a violent kidnapping, and a shooting over a drug debt.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said 33-year-old Edwin Otero of Hyannis was sentenced to serve 38 years in prison on May 18.

Two other men — 35-year-old Justin Joseph and 39-year-old Anthony Basilici, both of Pawtucket — were also sentenced to serve 30 years and 22 and a half years in prison respectively.

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Earlier this year, Otero and Joseph pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin, discharging a firearm in connection to a drug trafficking crime, kidnapping conspiracy, and witness retaliation conspiracy.

Meanwhile Basilici was convicted in January of the same charges and witness intimidation after a week-long trial.

The sentences wrap up an investigation into Otero's Cape Cod drug trafficking organization that started in 2018.

The investigation revealed the three men and eight other co-defendants were involved in the organization, which distributed large amounts of heroin throughout Cape Cod and in the Pawtucket area.

Five of the co-defendants — including Otero, Joseph, and Basilici — were also involved in the kidnapping of a victim in April 2019.

They lured him from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, where they held him, stripped him naked, assaulted him with a hammer, and threatened to rape him, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors said the victim was kidnapped and threatened because the perpetrators believed he was cooperating with law enforcement.

Basilici recorded the violent incident on a cell phone. Otero and Basilici then used the footage to further intimidate other witnessess, the office noted.

Shortly afterwards, in May 2019, the three men worked together to shoot at a Hyannis man over a drug debt he owed Otero, prosecutors said.

During the drug bust, authorities seized heroin, packaging materials, scales, a finger press, and three firearms and ammunition — including a 9mm assault-style weapon — from Otero's grandmother's home.

In total, 13 people have now been caught and sentenced in connection to the heroin trafficking organization, the U.S. Attorney's Office stated.