Federal jury convicts Reading man in Allentown fentanyl sting

A federal jury convicted a Reading man Friday of fentanyl distribution in a case stemming from a wide-ranging undercover drug trafficking investigation in Allentown, prosecutors said.

At the end of a week-long trial, the jury sitting in federal court in Allentown found Angel Luis Concepcion-Rosario guilty of conspiracy to distribute more than 40 grams of fentanyl. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kishan Nair said that’s enough for 10,000 doses with a street value of about $100,000.

Kishan said the fentanyl was 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, but would have been indistinguishable from heroin to a user.

“There was testimony that getting it off the streets prevented overdoses,” Nair said.

Concepcion-Rosario’s arrest in June 2017 was part of a long-term investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Pennsylvania State Police and Allentown police. Several others have been charged, but their cases remain sealed as investigators work to identify their suppliers, Nair said.

According to court documents, agents were watching a home in the 900 block of Wyoming Street in Allentown as part of the drug trafficking investigation. A vehicle registered to Concepcion-Rosario pulled up to the house and agents saw him meet briefly with another man who carried a grocery bag to the car.

Concepcion-Rosario opened the hood of the car. The other man walked back to his house a short time later without the grocery bag, court papers say.

Agents stopped Concepcion-Rosario’s vehicle on Route 222 as he returned to Reading. A search of the vehicle revealed a grocery bag containing a brownish powder concealed in the air filter. Agents initially believed the powder to be heroin, but later testing revealed it was fentanyl, court papers say.

peter.hall@mcall.com

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