By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
NEW LONDON, N.H. — A collaborative investigation called Operation Granite Shield has led to the arrest of two Lawrence men driving on Interstate 89 in New London, who were on the way back from Sullivan County with about 1,260 grams of fentanyl and an unspecified amount of cocaine.
According to information provided by the Newport Police Department, Ricardo Antonio Lara Guerrero, 28, and Jason Checo Severino, 24, were arrested by N.H. State Police on Feb. 12.
“Investigators from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Drug Task Force and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, along with their law enforcement partners in the New Hampshire State Police, the Newport Police Department and the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, surveilled two suspects as they traveled from Lawrence, MA, to Sullivan County with a purpose to deliver a large quantity of Fentanyl to be distributed throughout the area,” Newport Police Chief Stephen “Alex” Lee stated in a press release. “The two suspects were ultimately stopped by New Hampshire State Police Troopers on Interstate 89 and arrested.”
Both subjects were charged with Possession of Fentanyl with Intent to Deliver, Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Deliver and Falsifying Physical Evidence. They were detained at the Merrimack County House of Corrections without bail pending arraignment in court.
Operation Granite Shield is funded by the New Hampshire Department of Safety’s Substance Abuse Reduction Initiative, and involved cooperation between a number of state, local and federal authorities. This included the Newport Police Department, Claremont Police Department, Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, New Hampshire Attorney General’s Drug Task Force, New Hampshire State Police, United States Drug Enforcement Administration, and other federal, state and local partners. They are investigating the trafficking of large quantities of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs from source cities out of state including Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Lee said that a drug bust of this caliber stems from an investigation that started in June, and then a sweeping arrest of 20 individuals in November.
“From these arrests, investigators developed new evidence related to large quantities of Fentanyl and other dangerous drugs being trafficked into the greater Newport and Claremont area from Lawrence,” Lee stated in a press release.
Lee said between June and November, authorities gathered intelligence and conducted search warrants.
“It doesn’t stop now,” Lee said. “We’ll take the new evidence we gathered in the last week and move it on to other targets.”
In total, the Granite Shield alliance in Sullivan County this year has produced: 24 felony level drug arrests; 2,142 grams (over two kilograms) of fentanyl; 491 grams of methamphetamine; 115 grams of cocaine and crack cocaine; 949 prescription pills (including 82 pressed fentanyl pills); four firearms; and $22,362 in cash.
“These are some of the largest quantities that I’ve ever seen in my career spanning more than 21 years in law enforcement in Sullivan County,” Lee said on Monday. “I don’t recall ever seeing quantities like this. The quantity and the potency are really concerning.”
Lee explained that the seizures of such large quantities are due to this collaborative effort through Operation Granite Shield. Normally his department, and others in the area, do not have extra personnel available for long-term, complex investigations. They need to make sure they have their patrol officers on the road first, but this grant funding allows for overtime for off-duty officers.
“Without the grant funding and without our partnership with the Drug Task Force and DEA, we’d never be able to do this,” Lee said. “The way we make our way up the food chain is by making a minor possession arrest and then take evidence from this and work our way up to the local dealer. Then we’ll gather evidence from cell phones or social media, or interviews. Then we try to work it up to where the supply is coming from.”
Lee said that about three milligrams of fentanyl is essentially a dose, and this has the capability to be fatal to someone with a low tolerance. He also said a dangerous factor is that over the last six months police have also been finding a veterinary tranquilizer called Xylazine that is being cut with fentanyl. This leads to greater profits for dealers, as well as greater potency.
This leads to more overdoses because the user has not built up a tolerance to this combination. It can also not be counteracted by naloxone, which is also known as Narcan.
“So, when there is an overdose, it is much harder to bring them back,” Lee said. “We are less successful in reversing the overdoses due to that mixture.”
Additional arrests and charges are expected in the near future.
