United States Drug Enforcement Administration

CONCORD, N.h. – A Newbury woman pleaded guilty in federal court in connection to the diversion of dangerous narcotics by medical professionals, U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young announces.

Robin Nichols, 63, pleaded guilty to Tampering with Consumer Products.  U.S. District Court Judge Samantha Elliott scheduled sentencing for September 24, 2024.

On April 15, 2023, while working as a nurse at Catholic Medical Center, Nichols removed a quantity of fentanyl, a narcotic painkiller drug in liquid form, from a syringe intended for an operating room patient and which she knew was intended for that patient and replaced the fentanyl with a quantity of liquid saline and hydromorphone.

The charging statute provides a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

The Food & Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration led this investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Ward is prosecuting the cases.

Law enforcement in the District of New Hampshire has utilized resources to enforce federal laws in connection to the diversion of dangerous narcotics by medical professionals. In June 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office settled a $2 million civil action with Cheshire Medical Center for their failure to fulfill obligations under the Controlled Substances Act, which enabled a nurse to steal twenty-three intravenous bags of fentanyl solution from an automatic medication dispensing machine. Also in June 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office settled a $300,000 civil action with PillPack by Amazon, a pharmacy, to resolve allegations that they violated the Controlled Substances Act, which risked the division of drugs that are often abused in our communities.