Haverhill Man Pleads Guilty To Participating In Fentanyl Trafficking Conspiracy

          Concord – United States Attorney Scott W. Murray announced that Joshua Smith, 31, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute over 400 grams of fentanyl and to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

          According to court documents and statements made in court, a drug trafficking organization that authorities allege was led by Sergio Martinez, employed the defendant to sell fentanyl to customers from various New England States, including New Hampshire.  On each day that the defendant worked, the Martinez organization provided him with at least one 200-gram bag of fentanyl and expected him to sell it and return approximately $6,000 in proceeds.  The defendant worked for the Martinez organization on various days. On October 20, 2017, the defendant was arrested while selling drugs for the organization.  At the time, he possessed a firearm that he admitted to carrying to avoid being robbed by drug customers.

          Smith is scheduled to be sentenced on March 28, 2019.  Smith faces a mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years of imprisonment and a maximum sentence of life, a fine up to 10 million dollars and a term of supervised release of at least five years and as much as life.

          Thirty-three additional defendants have been charged in the fentanyl trafficking conspiracy.

          “Fentanyl trafficking makes a deadly substance available for purchase in this State,” said U.S. Attorney Murray.  “It is imperative that we dismantle the criminal organizations that profit from the sale of illegal substances.  In order to stop the devastation caused by their activities, we will continue to work closely with the entire law enforcement community to arrest and prosecute traffickers.”

        This investigation was conducted by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.

          The case was a collaborative investigation that involved the DEA; the New Hampshire State Police; the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office; the Nashua Police Department; the Massachusetts State Police; the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office; the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office; the Essex County District Attorney’s Office; the Internal Revenue Service; Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; United States Customs and Border Protection Boston Field Office; the United States Marshals Service; the United States Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service; the Manchester Police Department; the Lisbon Police Department; the Littleton Police Department; the Seabrook Police Department; the Haverhill (MA) Police Department; the Methuen (MA) Police Department; the Lowell (MA) Police Department; and the Maine State Police.

          The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Georgiana L. Konesky and Seth R. Aframe.

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