Haverhill man pleads guilty to fentanyl, gun charges in New Hampshire | Haverhill

CONCORD — A Haverhill, Massachusetts man pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a conspiracy to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl and possession of a firearm while committing a drug-related crime.

Joshua Smith, 31, is scheduled to be sentenced March 28 in U.S. District Court. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years. He could also be fined up to $10 million and will be on supervised release for at least five years after he leaves prison.

A drug trafficking organization led by Sergio Martinez employed Smith to sell fentanyl to customers from New Hampshire and other New England states, according to U.S. Attorney Scott Murray. The Martinez organization provided him with at least one 200-gram bag of fentanyl each day he worked and expected him to sell it and return about $6,000 in proceeds, Murray said.

On Oct. 20, 2017, Smith was arrested while selling drugs for the organization. At that time, he had a firearm that he admitted he carried to avoid being robbed by customers, authorities said.

Thirty-three other defendants have been charged with the fentanyl conspiracy, according to Murray.

“Fentanyl trafficking makes a deadly substance available for purchase in this state,” Murray said. “It is imperative that we dismantle the criminal organizations that profit from the sale of illegal substances. In order to stop the devastation caused by their activities, we will continue to work closely with the entire law enforcement community to arrest and prosecute traffickers.”

Several law enforcement agencies collaborated in the arrests of Smith and the other defendants, including the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine state police, the Manchester, Nashua, Lisbon, Littleton and Seabrook police departments in New Hampshire and the Methuen and Lowell police departments in Massachusetts.

The State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Marshals Service and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office also contributed to the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Georgiana Konesky and Seth Aframe are prosecuting the case.