Seabrook Woman Pleads Guilty to Participating in Fentanyl Trafficking Conspiracy

            CONCORD – United States Attorney Scott W. Murray announced that Darlene Tirone, 42, of Seabrook, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute over 400 grams of fentanyl.

            According to court documents and statements made in court, in the course of an ongoing drug trafficking investigation that included wiretaps of certain telephones, investigators learned that on March 14, 2018, Tirone intended to travel from New Hampshire to a location in Massachusetts to purchase a quantity of fentanyl.  Agents observed Tirone arrive in a vehicle and meet with a known drug runner.  A New Hampshire State Trooper subsequently stopped the vehicle Tirone was in and Tirone admitted to concealing fentanyl within her body.  Tirone retrieved 44 grams of fentanyl.  The intercepted calls revealed that between February 23, 2018, and March 14, 2018, Tirone ordered approximately 712 grams of fentanyl from the drug trafficking organization.

            Tirone is scheduled to be sentenced on November 28, 2018.

            “Stopping the flow of fentanyl into New Hampshire is a top priority of this office,” said U.S. Attorney Murray. “This dangerous drug continues to cause deaths and extensive damage to the overall wellbeing of our citizens. We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to prosecute traffickers and shut down their illegal drug businesses.”   

            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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