Connecticut Man Sentenced to Over 22 Years for Oxycodone Conspiracy

Contact: David B. Joyce
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Bangor, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced today that
Barry Diaz, 32, of Stamford, Connecticut, was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court by
Judge John A. Woodcock, to 22½ years in prison to be followed by 6 years of supervised release
for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and unlawful use of a telephone. Diaz pleaded guilty to
the charges on December 20, 2013.

According to Court documents, Diaz and others acquired oxycodone pills outside of
Maine. Some of these pills were obtained from people in Connecticut who diverted lawfully
issued oxycodone prescriptions. Others were obtained in bulk from California and elsewhere.
The pills were transported to Maine by Diaz or other conspirators working with him and were
given to street level dealers for distribution in Kennebec County and elsewhere. During the
investigation, law enforcement officers seized more than 600 30-mg oxycodone pills from
members of the conspiracy.

According to the evidence presented at the trial of Diaz’s co-defendant, Mark Razo, Diaz
and Razo operated the interstate drug conspiracy while Razo was serving a drug sentence in a
California state prison. Razo used contraband cellular telephones from inside the prison to
arrange transactions, recruit couriers and cause the transport of drugs across the United
States. Diaz was Razo’s point person for distribution of drugs across the country. A four pound
methamphetamine shipment that was seized in Iowa was among the drug shipments orchestrated
by Diaz and Razo.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance
from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the
Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, the Southeast Iowa Drug Task Force, the Wapello County
(Iowa) Sheriff’s Office, investigators from the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, the Stamford (Connecticut) Police Department, the Augusta (Maine) Police
Department, and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. The investigation was part of the
ongoing effort of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), a partnership
between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The principal mission of the
OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking,
weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the
nation’s illegal drug supply.