Whalen pleads guilty, sent to jail

A Pittsfield man pleaded guilty this afternoon in Berkshire Superior Court to drug charges.  32 year old SHANE E. WHALEN appeared before Judge Daniel Ford. 

WHALEN pleaded guilty to four (4) counts of POSSESSION OF COCAINE WITH INTENT TO DISTRIBUTE, six (6) counts of DISTRIBUTION OF COCAINE, six (6) counts of DRUG VIOLATION WITHIN A DRUG FREE SCHOOL ZONE and two (2) counts of CONSPIRACY TO VIOLATE DRUG LAWS.  Judge Ford ordered that he serve concurrent 1 day sentences to the Berkshire County House of Correction on the charges of POSSESSION OF COCAINE WITH INTENT TO DISTRIBUTE and CONSPIRACY.  WHALEN was given concurrent 2 and a half year house of correction sentences, to be served on and after the first sentence, on the SCHOOL ZONE charges.  He was also given concurrent house of correction time of the six (6) counts of DISTRIBUTION OF COCAINE.    

WHALEN was engaged selling or attempting to sell cocaine between December 29, 2009 and February 16, 2010 and conspired with others to sell cocaine between December 22, 2009 and April 15, 2010.    

One (1) count of CONSPIRACY TO VIOLATE DRUG LAWS was dismissed at the request of the Commonwealth.  

The investigation was conducted by members of the Berkshire County Drug Task Force, including state troopers assigned to the District Attorney’s Office, members of the Pittsfield, Adams, North Adams, Dalton, Lee, Lenox, Williamstown, Lanesborough, Great Barrington and Stockbridge Police Departments, federal investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.