Manchester Man Pleads Guilty To Distributing Fentanyl

          CONCORD, N.H. - Alex “Lex” Hernandez, 27, previously of Manchester, New Hampshire and Lowell, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of distributing fentanyl, Acting United States Attorney John J. Farley announced today.

          According to court documents and statements made in court, on three separate occasions in April, May and June 2016, Hernandez sold several “fingers” of fentanyl to a cooperating individual working with law enforcement.  In total, Hernandez distributed approximately 110 grams of fentanyl across the three deals. 

          Hernandez still faces pending charges in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, for a cocaine-related offense.

Hernandez is scheduled to be sentenced on March 13, 2018.

          “Fentanyl is associated with the vast majority of the drug overdose deaths in New Hampshire,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Farley.  “While we recognized that those who suffer from addiction should get access to treatment, we will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to target and prosecute those who are selling this deadly drug.  Stopping the distribution of fentanyl is necessary to protect our communities.”

              “This case is another example of an individual willing to distribute deadly drugs into our neighborhoods,” said Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division. “With New Hampshire being at the epicenter of the opioid epidemic killing thousands, it is only by working together that we can make a difference. The FBI’s Safe Streets Gang Task Force will continue to do everything it can to bring to justice those that put these highly addictive drugs on our streets and into the hands of abusers.”

          This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Gang Task Force, which consists of FBI Special Agents and members of the Manchester Police Department, the Hudson Police Department, the New Hampshire State Police, the Nashua Police Department, and the New Hampshire Department of Corrections Probation and Parole.  Investigators also received assistance of the Massachusetts State Police, the Lowell, Massachusetts Police Department, and the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles L. Rombeau.

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