Mercer County Man Sentenced to 188 Months in Prison for Distributing Fentanyl that Caused Death of Monmouth County Woman

TRENTON, N.J. – A Mercer County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 188 months in prison for distributing fentanyl that caused the death of a Monmouth County, New Jersey, woman, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.

Quasaan Bethea, 35, of Trenton, previously pleaded guilty before Chief District Court Judge Freda L. Wolfson to one count of conspiring to distribute fentanyl, which Bethea admitted caused the death of a Monmouth County woman. Chief Judge Wolfson imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On May 15, 2018, a woman from Englishtown, New Jersey, referred to in court as Victim-1, sought out Bethea and his conspirator, Tarashanna Blake, to purchase a particular “brand” or “stamp” of heroin the pair sold known as “CAMEL.” Bethea and Blake agreed. The packages Victim-1 purchased from Bethea and Blake, however, contained fentanyl, and not heroin. Shortly after Bethea and Blake distributed the CAMEL-stamped fentanyl to Victim-1, Victim-1 died of a fentanyl overdose.

Later that same day, law enforcement officers, in an undercover capacity, used Victim-1’s cell phone to purchase more heroin from Bethea and Blake. Blake spoke with an undercover law enforcement officer and agreed to the sale. At the agreed upon time and location, the undercover officer advised Blake that he/she had arrived. Blake responded “park” and “my [boyfriend] gonna walk to you.” Bethea parked his vehicle behind the undercover vehicle and exited. As the officer approached Bethea, Bethea discarded objects packaged like heroin and stamped “CAMEL,” which were later determined to be fentanyl. 

In addition to the prison term, Chief Judge Wolfson sentenced Bethea to three years of supervised release.

Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited special agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Susan A. Gibson; detectives from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Lori Linskey; the Englishtown Police Department under the direction of Peter S. Cooke Jr.; and Trenton Police Department’s Narcotics Task Force, under the direction of Acting Police Director Steve Wilson, for their assistance with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan L. O’Neill of the Office’s Health Care Fraud Unit.