Crime & Safety

Woburn Man Sentenced on Cocaine, Weapons Charges in Ring in Stoneham

Earlier this week, the man was found guilty for his role in a widespread drug ring.

Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan announced on Friday that a 25-year-old Woburn man was found guilty of trafficking cocaine in Woburn, Burlington, Waltham and Stoneham and was sentenced to eight to nine years in prison.

According to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office, William Najjar pleaded guilty earlier this week to charges of trafficking cocaine over 100 grams, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, four counts of distribution of cocaine, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of ammunition.

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Jane Haggerty sentenced Najjar to two years of probation in addition to the eight to nine years in prison.

Find out what's happening in Stonehamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“This defendant was the cocaine supplier for a local drug ring in several of our communities,” said Ryan in a press release. “This decision today removes a serious drug offender from our streets. I applaud the dedicated work of the Woburn Police narcotics unit and the Massachusetts State Police, who used court-authorized wiretap surveillance to break up this known drug ring.”

The press release said that beginning in December 2009 and continuing through February 2010, the District Attorney’s Office applied for an received a wiretap warrant, hoping to intercept conversations between suspects in the drug ring.

Find out what's happening in Stonehamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Search warrants resulted from the intercepted conversations, and when executed, they led police to 200 grams of cocaine, 28 grams of heroin, three firearms tens of thousands of dollars of cash and numerous vehicles used to run the drug ring. In total, seven homes and 10 motor vehicles were searched using the warrants.

Police determined that Michael Reynolds, 30, of Burlington, and his father, Kenneth Reynolds, 49, were behind the large drug distribution organization by personally distributing drugs and hiring others to sell the drugs on their behalf. The elder of the two is a former member of the Burlington Police Department.

Both Michael and Kenneth Reynolds have previously pleaded guilty to charges involving the drug ring, for which Najjar was identified as the primary cocaine supplier of the Reynolds organization, the District Attorney said.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.