Lawrence man gets 12-1/2 years for fentanyl conspiracy role | Crime

Jesus Rivera, 21, had pleaded guilty last March.

He was one of 33 defendants charged in the conspiracy to sell fentanyl to customers from various New England states including New Hampshire.

According to court documents, Rivera signed up to receive at least one 200-gram bag of fentanyl each time he worked and was to return with at least $6,000 in cash for it.

Also on Monday, Paul William Aaron, 33, of Lowell, was sentenced to five years in prison for taking part in a fentanyl distribution ring.

According to court documents, Aaron bought 400 grams of fentanyl from a drug trafficking organization that prosecutors said was led by Sergio Martinez.

Federal officials said Aaron sometimes bought fentanyl on credit and then resold it to various customers.

“Fentanyl is not manufactured in New Hampshire,” said U.S. Attorney Scott W. Murray. “This deadly drug is introduced into the state by traffickers and the results have been devastating. In order interrupt this lethal supply chain, we will continue to be aggressive in our efforts to prosecute and incarcerate fentanyl traffickers.”

This investigation resulting in both convictions 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 probe was the joint work of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration along with state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.