HOLYOKE, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Federal prosecutors say the leader of a violent Holyoke based drug operation is heading to prison for more than 18 years.

45-year-old Vicente Gonzalez of Springfield pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute at least 500 grams of cocaine, and to possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Investigators said Gonzalez ran a violent enterprise of at least ten people who served as lookouts, runners, enforcers and manufacturers, moving large amounts of drugs in Holyoke and Springfield.

They said his main base was an apartment building in a dense Holyoke neighborhood between April 2021 and March 2022. Reportedly, Gonzalez kept an arsenal of guns at the stash house and led an attempted armed kidnapping of a rival dealer in June 2021.

He was sentenced to 220 months behind bars, followed by 4 years of supervised release.