Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald; Jon C. DeLena Assistant Special Agent in Charge, United States Drug Enforcement Administration; Manchester Police Chief Enoch F. Willard; and Hillsborough County Attorney Dennis Hogan announce that Luciano Vasquez, age 35, of Lawrence, Massachusetts pleaded guilty on January 5, 2018 in Hillsborough County Superior Court - Northern Division to possessing 40 grams of fentanyl with the intent to sell.

Mr. Vasquez was sentenced to 6 to 12 years in the New Hampshire State Prison for possessing 40 grams of the controlled drug fentanyl with the intent to sell. He received an additional consecutive suspended sentence of 3½ to 7 years for falsifying physical evidence because he hid the fentanyl when he was stopped and confronted by law enforcement.

On March 6, 2017, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration's Heroin Strike Force used an informant to arrange the purchase of drugs from Mr. Vasquez. Mr. Vasquez proceeded from Lawrence, MA to Manchester, NH where he was stopped by law enforcement and found to be in possession of 40 grams of fentanyl. Mr. Vasquez later told law enforcement that the informant he believed he was meeting was his only New Hampshire customer.

This successful investigation and prosecution was the result of the efforts of the multi-agency United States Drug Enforcement Administration's Heroin Strike Force with the assistance of Assistant County Attorney Brett Harpster of the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office and the New Hampshire Department of Justice's Drug Prosecution Unit.