Feds charge 25 in multi-state drug ring involving Mass., N.H., and R.I. – The Boston Globe

An investigation into a drug trafficking ring allegedly led by a Leominster man, who filled custom orders taken by telephone and delivered fentanyl and cocaine in socks hidden in engine compartments, has netted charges against 25 people, including a dozen from Boston, federal prosecutors said Friday.

The ring raked in an estimated $20,000 a day distributing the narcotics throughout Boston, across Eastern Massachusetts, and into Rhode Island, acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office said in a statement.

Yulial Cueo-Reynoso, 33, whose street name was “Sonny,” paid people to maintain stash houses and to distribute the drugs, the statement said.

Levy’s statement names 19 of the 25 charged, they range in age from 22 to 43 and include three women. Twelve are from Boston, two from Leominster, and the rest are from Barnstable, Brookline, Lawrence, Manchester, N.H., and North Smithfield, R.I. Six others remain at large.

Federal agents began their investigation in March 2022 and seized more than 2.3 kilograms of fentanyl, 12 kilograms of a fentanyl/cocaine mix, 300 grams of cocaine, six guns, and $400,000, the statement said.

Investigators set up undercover drug buys and intercepted communications.

In one of the calls, Denly Soto-Tejeda, 25, of Manchester, N.H., allegedly remarked on the deadliness of their product. “Those people like the stuff that kills them,” he allegedly said.

Levy’s statement said the “takedown” of the ring “dismantled a sophisticated and large-scale drug trafficking organization operating in plain sight.”

“We allege that these defendants exploited addiction for personal profit and with full knowledge of that the drugs they were peddling could be lethal,” Levy said in the statement.”

Prosecutors allege that the organization used “a color-coding system to differentiate between the drugs” it was selling and frequently hid the drugs in socks that were stashed in engine compartments of delivery vehicles.

Stephen Belleau, the DEA’s acting special agent in charge of the New England field division, pledged his agency’s continued dedication to identifying and prosecuting those who distribute “deadly drugs in order to profit.”

Cueo-Reynoso and Soto-Tejeda have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine, along with the following: Yordania Abel Rivera, 33, of Leominster; from Boston, Jorge Vizcaino, 24; Rafael Concepcion 34; Alinson Joel Ortiz Arias, 32; Axel Brea Baez, 25; Yeiron Vizcaino 28; Alberto Gonzalez, 36; Mariela Cuello Reynoso, 30; Elisbania Tejeda-Soto, 25; Rubert Adrian Jimenez, 24; Adrian Suncar-Gonzalez, 38; Johangel Mejia-Hernandez, 22; Francisco Tavarez Contreras, 43.

Also, Anthony Cuoco, 43, of Barnstable; Santo Franco-Sanchez, 42, of Brookline; Luis Guerrero, 25, of Lawrence; Carlos Abel Rivera, 34, of North Smithfield, R.I.. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.