Boston Heroin, Fentanyl Trafficking Ring Leader Gets 16 Years
BOSTON – The leader of a Boston-based heroin and fentanyl trafficking organization will be behind bars for more than a dozen years after he was sentenced Monday in Boston federal court.
Jose Antonio Lugo-Guerrero, who also goes by Fernando Rivera-Rodriguez, 40, a Dominican national formerly residing in Mattapan, was sentenced to 16 years in prison and five years of supervised release. Lugo-Guerrero will then face deportation.
In August 2018, Lugo-Guerrero pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than one kilogram of heroin, more than 400 grams of fentanyl, and more than five kilograms of cocaine, and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. In February 2017 Lugo-Guerrero was arrested and charged along with 22 others.
From mid-2016 through February 2017, federal law enforcement investigated two drug trafficking organizations operating in Taunton and Boston; the former led by Fernando Hernandez, and the latter led by Lugo-Guerrero. Hernandez’s organization got drugs from a network of suppliers that included Lugo-Guerrero.
Lugo-Guerrero sold kilograms of heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine to customers in Boston, New Bedford, Fall River, and surrounding areas.
Federal wiretaps in late 2016 and early 2017 showed that he got some of the drugs he sold by robbing other drug dealers.
On Nov. 3, 2016, Lugo-Guerrero and five co-defendants traveled to New Bedford planning to rob a drug dealer who had stolen half a kilogram of heroin from Lugo-Guerrero. At Lugo-Guerrero’s direction, one of his accomplices transported a firearm and provided it to another just before the attempted robbery.
Based on intercepted communications, law enforcement agents were aware of the planned robbery and stopped and questioned those involved before it went down. As a result, Lugo-Guerrero aborted his plan that night and returned to Boston.
In February 2018, Hernandez was sentenced to 15½ years in prison after pleading guilty in November 2017. The court found that Hernandez was responsible for distributing more than a kilogram of heroin over a two-month period in the summer of 2016.
Related:
Sister, Accomplice Of Opioid Dealer Skipped Federal Court: DOJ
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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff
