It’s been a fruitful year for the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office under acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy.

Levy ran through the prosecutorial priorities of the office and its big breaks during a reporter roundtable discussion at his office Wednesday morning.

Levy was First Assistant USA under Rachael Rollins’ brief tenure at the helm, which ended with her resignation under ethical fire a year ago. Levy assumed the top role and he is now President Biden’s nominee for the permanent position.

The top priorities his office has focused on over the last year include heavy hitters like human trafficking, major fraud and the opioid crisis.

Targeting traffickers

“Opioids course through this office,” Levy said, adding that the top Department of Justice priority is “keeping communities safe.”

“Our numbers on opioid overdose deaths are not good. The numbers have tracked down slightly, but they’re still way too high,” he said, adding that the largest unit in his office is focused on narcotics and money laundering, which often go hand-in-hand.

“We are going after both large-scale drug traffickers, and we have multiple cases that have international roots really back to Mexico,” he continued. “We’re focusing on large-scale, multiple kilos of fentanyl that are coming from Mexico and we’re focusing on the money because no money, no drugs. It’s a vicious circle.”

Brothel ring

If Herald readers have noticed an uptick in coverage of human trafficking cases at the federal level, there’s a reason for that, Levy says: “We are busier than we ever imagined we would be.”

At the time of the discussion, the office had 19 cases of men trafficking minors in Massachusetts already indicted, with more not yet at that stage. And, “plenty” more cases of men who through “force, fraud and coercion” are trafficking women, keeping the money and spending just enough of it on drugs to keep the trafficked women hooked.

“I will tell you it’s not unlike the opioid issue,” Levy said. “You have issues of supply and demand.”

The office created a unit in 2022 to focus solely on human trafficking, which he said has made a major improvement on prosecuting this crime from the earlier stage of prosecutors “moonlighting” on the issue. Levy says the Massachusetts office is now “the busiest U.S. Attorney’s office in the country for human trafficking right now.”

He said that eradicating the issue will take more than just targeting suppliers: “We also need to go after demand.”

It’s been more than six months since Levy’s office announced it had busted a “booming” sex ring catering to “well-connected” johns in Greater Boston and the Virginian suburbs of Washington D.C. across many high-paying fields.

While the alleged operators of the high-end brothel network — ringleader Han Lee, 41, of Cambridge; James Lee, 68, of Torrance, Calif., and Junmyung Lee, 30, of Dedham — were indicted at the start of February, the alleged johns have still not been named.

Their cases are mired in appeals and lawsuits to keep the “potentially hundreds” of sex buyers’ identities sealed. And Levy said his office can’t help on that front: it’s a state issue handled by the Middlesex DA’s office.

Gangs and COVID fraud

Boston is enjoying a time of record-low homicide and shootings, which Levy attributes to a wide variety of influences: strong gun laws in the state; involved community organizations like Grove Hall, “as a regular meeting where the community gets together with police”; and a strong shift toward community engagement by the Boston Police Department.

“Commissioner (Michael) Cox has people getting out of their cars and walking their beat and getting to know people in the community,” Levy said.

Levy repeatedly cited his office’s case against 41 members and associates of the notorious Jamaica Plain Heath Street gang, whose violence was allegedly financed through rampant COVID assistance grant fraud. At the February press conference announcing that case and again, on Wednesday, Levy highlighted cooperation between federal, state, and local law enforcement.

Permanent move

“I remember going to work and said, ‘I can’t believe I get paid to do this,’” Levy said, reflecting on his seven years as a young assistant U.S. Attorney in the office before going on to do all kinds of big-time legal work at the firm Ropes & Gray for 17 years before deciding it was time to come back.

“To be the voice for the voiceless in the courtroom was really, I thought, the highest calling as a lawyer,” he said.

Levy took over the office a year ago following Rollins’ resignation and was swiftly nominated for the full-time job. Nothing new on that front has been announced since his October nomination. All U.S. Attorney confirmations are currently stalled under heavy political gridlock, so he had no new information on when next steps could come.

When asked if he’d like the role, Levy smiled.

“I want to see the ‘acting’ taken out of my title, to answer the question directly,” he said, but reiterated his commitment to the work no matter the title.

“I was nominated by the president two days before I lost my dad. I got to share that with him,” Levy said, the pen his father hand-made for him resting on the legal pad at his side. “So that was more important to me than whether there’s an extra word in front of my title.”

Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy speaks during a roundtable discussion with media at the federal courthouse. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)