14/08/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 14/08/2024 23:21
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - Bernabe Lopez, age 59, of Utica, New York, was sentenced today to serve 88 months in federal prison for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute fentanyl, announced United States Attorney Carla Freedman; Frank A. Tarentino III, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), New York Division and Thomas Fattorusso, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), New York Field Office. Lopez was also ordered to serve a 4-year term of supervised release following his term of imprisonment, pay a $100 special assessment and a $4,950.00 money judgment, representing proceeds of his drug trafficking offense.
From May 2020 through October 2021, Lopez acquired quantities of fentanyl from co-conspirators in the Rodriguez Drug Trafficking Organization (Rodriguez DTO), which he then re-distributed to others in the Utica, New York area. Lopez also sold a cutting agent to members of the conspiracy for $10 a gram, knowing that the co-conspirators were adulterating fentanyl with the cutting agent to increase volume for sales.
Lopez was one of 9 defendants charged in the Rodriguez DTO. To date, all of the other defendants pled guilty and were sentenced as follows:
This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
This case is being investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations Division, Homeland Security Investigations, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations, New York State Police, Oneida County Sheriff's Office, Oneida County District Attorney's Office, Utica Police Department, Syracuse Police Department, Rome Police Department, Onondaga County Sheriff's Office, Onondaga County District Attorney's Office, New York Army National Guard Counter Drug Program, Yorkville Police Department, Whitesboro Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamara Thomson.