Maine Man Pleads Guilty to Opioid Trafficking Conspiracy

BOSTON – A Maine man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston to his role in an opioid trafficking conspiracy involving the distribution of oxycodone from Florida to Massachusetts and Maine.

Gorky Gonzalez, 26, of Biddeford, Maine, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute oxycodone. U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper scheduled sentencing for July 17, 2018.

Gonzalez was arrested in March 2017 along with approximately nine co-defendants for their roles in a widespread conspiracy involving opioid trafficking and money laundering offenses in Massachusetts and Florida. Their arrests were the result of a three-year federal investigation into opioid-trafficking in New England.

According to charging documents, between September 2016 and November 2016, Gonzalez obtained sizeable quantities of oxycodone intended for distribution that were shipped from Miami, Fla., to Massachusetts and then transported to Maine. Payment for the oxycodone pills was then delivered to co-conspirators in Massachusetts, who then forwarded the money to the source of supply in Florida.

Each count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute oxycodone provides for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, a lifetime of supervised release, a fine of up to $1 million, and forfeiture. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Michael J. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boston Field Division; Kristina O’Connell, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; Raymond Moss, Acting Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; John Gibbons, U.S. Marshal for the District of Massachusetts; and Mickey D. Leadingham, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Massachusetts State Police and the Biddeford (Maine), Framingham, Haverhill, Lawrence, Manchester (N.H.), Methuen, Millis, Natick, Stoughton, and Waltham Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nadine Pellegrini and Craig Estes of Lelling’s Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit are prosecuting the cases.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.