Yarmouthport man sentenced for selling drugs at methadone clinic – News – capecodtimes.com

BARNSTABLE — A Yarmouthport man will spend 30 days in the Barnstable Country Correctional Facility and two years on probation for selling the powerful opioid fentanyl in the parking lot of a methadone clinic.

Richard Cincotta, 65, pleaded guilty to possession of a class B substance with intent to distribute and distribution of a class B substance.

In addition to the 30-day sentence and two years’ probation, Cincotta agreed to forfeit $2,280 to law enforcement.

Cape and Islands Assistant District Attorney Jessica Croker said she reached an agreement on the sentence with Cincotta’s defense attorney, Peter Lloyd, and asked Barnstable Superior Court Judge Robert Rufo to accept it.

Croker said the sentence was reasonable given Cincotta’s history of drug use, an unspecified medical condition and his profession as a carpenter.

Lloyd said his client suffered from back issues in his late 50s, and pain management treatments led to addiction.

Rufo said Cincotta’s was not the typical drug-addiction case and he recognized the mitigating factors, but he warned Cincotta that he still faces more prison time if he violates his probation.

Yarmouth police received an anonymous tip that Cincotta and another man were dealing heroin from a pickup truck to opioid-addicted patients waiting for a drug treatment clinic to open. Officers watched the clinic, Cape Cod Comprehensive Treatment Centers in South Yarmouth, for about a week, where they saw people approaching a pickup truck and engaging in quick transactions.

The clinic provides medication-assisted treatment, such as methadone, Suboxone and Subutex, and therapy sessions for people trying to overcome addiction to opioids, according to its website.

On Feb. 16, 2018, police watched as a man conducted a hand-to-hand transaction with Cincotta, then drove across the street to the parking lot of a grocery store. Police followed the unnamed man and found he was preparing to inject drugs, Croker said.

The man alleged he bought $200 worth of heroin from Cincotta, although the drugs later were found to be fentanyl.

Police searched Cincotta’s house and found a small amount of packaged fentanyl, she said.

— Follow Wheeler Cowperthwaite on Twitter: @WheelerReporter.