Four Haverhill residents are among the 45 Merrimack Valley-area individuals indicted in New Hampshire’s largest-ever fentanyl bust, the Drug Enforcement Administration said this week.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Concord, N.H., tracked a drug ring centered in Lawrence for more than a year, determining that brothers Sergio and Raulin Martinez ran a “vast network” of dealers who sold in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Haverhill’s Fernand V. Miranda, 23, Alexander Noonan, 20, Miguel Alvarez, 27, and Trevor Ahearn, 28, are charged with participating in a conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.
The indictments follow an April 9 sweep involving more than 100 federal and state officials who took 15 participants in the ring into custody. Haverhill’s Noonan is among the eight defendants that have not yet been taken into custody.
More than 30 kilograms of suspected fentanyl, two guns and more than $500,000 were seized in during the investigation, authorities said.
“Fentanyl is responsible for the lion’s share of overdose deaths in the Granite State,” U.S. Attorney Scott W. Murray said. “The law enforcement community in New England is united in the effort to end the opioid crisis.”
Individuals from nearby Methuen and Plaistow, N.H. have also been indicted in the trafficking conspiracy.
If convicted, the Haverhill-based defendants face a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10 million.