Concord - United States Attorney Scott W. Murray announced that Steven Guerrero, 19, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was sentenced to 69 months in prison, and Julio Saldana, 19, also of Lawrence, was sentenced to 138 months in prison for participating in a fentanyl trafficking conspiracy.
According to court documents and statements made in court, a drug trafficking organization that authorities allege was led by Sergio Martinez, employed Steven Guerrero, Julio Saldana, and others to sell fentanyl to customers from various New England States, including New Hampshire. On each day that the defendants worked, the Martinez organization provided them with at least one 200-gram bag of fentanyl and expected them to sell it and return approximately $6,000 in proceeds. While working for the Martinez organization, Saldana was robbed by a customer and thereafter acquired a firearm for his protection. On March 20, 2019, Saldana got in an altercation with rival gang members which ultimately resulted in a shooting. When the defendant was arrested on charges related to the shooting, officers recovered approximately 160 grams of fentanyl from his pocket.
Guerrero and Saldana both previously pleaded guilty on Dec. 27, 2018.
“Fentanyl trafficking has had a terrible impact on the quality of life for many New Hampshire citizens," said U.S. Attorney Murray. “In order to stop the transportation and sale of this deadly drug, we coordinate with all of our law enforcement partners to identify, prosecute, and incarcerate those who are responsible for its distribution. Traffickers should expect to be caught, prosecuted, and incarcerated on long prison terms."
“Fentanyl is causing tremendous damage to New Hampshire," said DEA Special Agent in Charge Brian D. Boyle. “Let these sentences be a warning to those traffickers who are coming from out of state to distribute this poison in order to profit and destroy people’s lives. DEA’s top priority is combatting the opioid epidemic by working with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners."
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.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
