Massachusetts Man Sentenced To 51 Months In Prison For Possession Of Fentanyl With Intent To Distribute

            CONCORD – United States Attorney, Emily Gray Rice announced today that United States District Court Judge Steven J. McAuliffe sentenced Hector Bienvenido Mateo-Beltre to serve 51 months in federal prison.   Mateo-Beltre previously had pleaded guilty to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute.

            According to documents that were filed in United States District Court and statements in the plea proceeding, Mateo-Beltre was arrested on July 12, 2015, after he attempted to deliver over 200 grams of fentanyl to a customer in Manchester, New Hampshire.  After his arrest, Mateo-Beltre falsely claimed to be “Kevin Morales” of Dorchester, Massachusetts.  Law enforcement officers later determined his true name.

            According to statistics maintained by the State of New Hampshire, over half of the drug overdose deaths in New Hampshire in 2015 were related to fentanyl.  Because a single gram of heroin or fentanyl can be used to create multiple individual dosage units that can be sold “on the street,” the quantity of fentanyl involved in this case could have generated hundreds of individual doses of fentanyl, each of which had the potential to cause a fatal overdose.

            The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from other law enforcement agencies, including the New Hampshire State Police and the Manchester Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Debra Walsh and John J. Farley.

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