New Hampshire U.S. Attorney Emily Gray Rice
A Haverhill man, the last of six defendants indicted in an investigation of an interstate drug operation, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court.
Juan Rojas, 32, admitted to two counts of conspiracy – the first to distribute oxycodone and cocaine, and the second to possess a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime – according to a statement from Emily Gray Rice, the U.S. attorney for the state of New Hampshire.
Rojas is scheduled to be sentenced on May 10.
According to statements made in Thursday’s plea proceeding and documents filed in court, Rojas admitted that he and others distributed cocaine and oxycodone pills in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Rojas was arrested on Aug. 18 after law enforcement officials, during a wiretap investigation, intercepted calls in which Rojas was heard obtaining quantities of oxycodone and cocaine, Rice told WHAV. On the day he was arrested, approximately 100 grams of cocaine were recovered from the vehicle he was operating, Rice said.
According to Rice’s statement, officers also intercepted calls indicating that Rojas and another individual, Oscar Rosario, planned to rob a drug dealer. Intercepted calls showed that Rosario traveled from New Hampshire to Haverhill, where he obtained a firearm from Rojas. A law enforcement officer later stopped Rosario and recovered the firearm before it could be used to commit the robbery, Rice said.
As WHAV previously reported, Rojas and five others were indicted by a federal grand jury on Sept. 23 and charged with conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute, controlled substances. The other defendants, Mara Morillo, 41; Franklyn Morillo, 41; Jorge Medina, 25, of Haverhill; Justin Bartimus, 35, formerly of Methuen; and Michael Lally, 28, of Salem, N.H., all have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
Rice said Rojas supplied cocaine and oxycodone to the Morillos, who arranged to distribute the drugs to others.
Rojas and Rosario were charged in a separate indictment with conspiracy to possess a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Rosario previously pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.