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Silva, Silva and Tsarnaev: A Confusing Story

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Thu Jul 24, 2014 at 08:09:00 AM EST
Tags: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Stephen Silva, Steven Silva (all tags)
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Yesterday the feds arrested Stephen Silva of Cambridge, MA for heroin dealing and possession of a firearm with a partially obliterated serial number. Leaks from law enforcement claimed the gun is the one used to kill a Cambridge police officer days after the Boston Marathon bombings.

In June, the Judge in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's case said he was very concerned about leaks but declined to issue a gag order. He should be more concerned now. As should the judge in Silva's case, since Silva isn't charged with anything related to the bombing, the Tsarnaev's or the officer's shooting.

He was charged with unlawful possession of a gun that had an altered or obliterated serial number. That police say it's the same gun that killed the officer says nothing about how the Tsarnaev's got it. Silva could have given it to any number of people who might have given it to the Tsarnaevs. Or, maybe someone paid a drug debt to Silva with the gun, and not being into guns, he sold it the next day, and his buyer sold or gave it to Tsarnaev.

The ATF determined the serial number over a year ago and linked it to Danny Sun in Maine, who bought it from Cabela’s outdoor supply store in Scarborough, ME on Nov. 27, 2011. Sun told police he gave it to Biniam Tsegai in Portland, Maine. Biniam and two other defendants recently pleaded guilty in federal court in Maine to selling crack cocaine in 2011and are awaiting sentencing. They were caught during a wiretap investigation. The wires were up between June through December, 2011. A review of the pleadings in the case, (case number 13-cr-00090) including the prosecutor's statement of facts as to all three, show that contrary to law enforcement leaks in the press, Biniam was not the leader of the group, but worked for the leader, whose name is Hamadi Hassan. (Docket #107, 126, 134.)

These interceptions, combined with other law enforcement activities, revealed a drug trafficking conspiracy operating in the Portland, Maine area headed by Hamadi Hassan.

...[d]uring the dates of the charged conspiracy, Biniam Tsegai (1) received orders for user-level quantities of crack cocaine from Hamadi Hassan’s customers; (2) delivered crack cocaine to Hamadi Hassan’s customers after they had placed orders with H