Massachusetts Man Sentenced to Over 10 Years for Fentanyl Trafficking Conspiracy

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Wender Santos, a/k/a “Carlos,” 24, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge Jon D. Levy to 130 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute, fentanyl, and aiding and abetting the possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.  The defendant pled guilty on April 3.

Court records reveal that in 2016, Santos conspired with Rafael Buli and others to distribute fentanyl in the Lawrence area.  Maine drug customers contacted Santos, who they knew only as “Carlos,” to place orders for distributable quantities of fentanyl.  Santos then directed his drug couriers, including Buli, to meet with his Maine customers to consummate the drug transactions.  On September 1, 2016, federal and state agents stopped a Maine customer after Santos and Buli sold the customer about 400 grams of fentanyl.  The agents located the fentanyl inside a “trap” compartment of a vehicle that Santos furnished to the customer.  Agents identified Santos, learned that he had an apartment in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, searched the apartment on December 12, 2016 pursuant to a warrant, and seized about $14,000, cell phones and a money counter.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Maine State Police and prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice’s Strategy to Combat the Opioid Epidemic.