Former Methuen Man Receives 8 Years in Prison for Drugs, Gun

File photograph. (Image licensed by Ingram Image.)

A former Methuen man was sentenced Monday to eight years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin, fentanyl and oxycodone and unlawful possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Juan Alexis Diaz Pena, 31, and Gonzalez Diaz, 34, formerly of Lawrence, previously pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin, fentanyl and oxycodone in the Lawrence area to individuals who then sold the drugs in New Hampshire, according to acting New Hampshire U.S. Attorney John J. Farley. The sales took place from the spring of 2014 through January of 2016.

Diaz Pena was sentenced in U.S. District Court to three years in prison on the drug trafficking charge and received a five-year mandatory minimum prison term on the firearms charge. H will likely be deported from the United States after completing his federal sentence, Farley’s office said.

Gonzalez Diaz is scheduled to be sentenced on July 10, 2017.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials searched an apartment connected to Pena in January of 2016 and found cocaine and heroin, items associated with drug trafficking and a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, according to court documents.

Haverhill Police were among the departments who assisted in the investigation.