Manchester Man Pleads Guilty to Participating in Fentanyl Trafficking Conspiracy

            CONCORD - David Fagan, 32, of Manchester, pleaded guilty in federal court to participating in a fentanyl drug trafficking conspiracy, United States Attorney Scott W. Murray announced today.

            According to court documents and statements made in court, as a result of an ongoing drug trafficking investigation, agents and task force officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration learned that on March 6, 2018, Fagan intended to travel from New Hampshire to a location in Lawrence, Massachusetts to purchase 50 grams of a controlled substance.  Agents conducted surveillance in the area of the transaction and observed the defendant’s vehicle arrive.  The vehicle left Massachusetts and agents followed it directly to Nashua, New Hampshire, where they stopped the vehicle.  Officers later received a search warrant and recovered approximately one gram of suspected fentanyl in the car. 

            On March 29, 2018, agents learned that Fagan again intended to travel from New Hampshire to a location in Lawrence to purchase 50 grams of a controlled substance. Agents conducted surveillance in the area of the transaction.   Investigators passed on information to the New Hampshire State Police. 

            A trooper later stopped the vehicle heading northbound on I-93.  The trooper identified the driver as the registered owner of the car and Fagan as the sole passenger. The officer spoke to both individuals and obtained consent to search the vehicle.  The trooper located approximately 50 grams of fentanyl under the hood of the car inside the air filter. 

            The investigation revealed that from February 23, 2018, through April 2018, Fagan ordered and purchased over one kilogram of fentanyl.          

            Fagan is scheduled to be sentenced on January 7, 2019.

            “Fentanyl distributors are causing grave harm to our state,” said U.S. Attorney Murray.  “This case is an example of how members of the law enforcement community are working together to combat the deadly threat that this drug poses to the Granite State.”

            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, Seth R. Aframe and Debra M. Walsh.

            This case was supported 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.  

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