United States Drug Enforcement Administration

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Nicholas Selser, 33, of Cranston, R.I., has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for manufacturing (meth) inside a residence of the D’Evan Manor housing complex in Cranston, announced Michael J. Ferguson Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha, Cranston Police Chief Colonel Michael J. Winquist.

A co-defendant in this matter, Michael Fortes, 48, of Cranston, R.I., is scheduled to be sentenced on October 29, 2015.

At sentencing on Friday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith also ordered Nicholas Selser to serve three years supervised release upon completion of his prison term. Selser and Fortes pleaded guilty in July as charged in a grand jury indictment returned in March 2015, to one count each of conspiracy, knowingly manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of pseudoephedrine with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine and possessing equipment to manufacture methamphetamine.

On February 18, 2015, Cranston Police, the R.I. DEA Drug Task Force and a DEA Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Team executed a court authorized search of the defendants’ D’Evan Manor apartment and seized various chemicals, supplies and items used in the manufacture of meth.

Information was developed and evidence was seized by law enforcement that indicated that the defendants had manufactured meth inside the apartment of the densely populated complex approximately eleven times. The defendants admitted to the court that they used the “one pot” method to manufacture meth, a simple but potentially dangerous method of manufacturing meth in approximately one hour.  The manufacture of methamphetamine is often times a dangerous process which may result in explosion or fire.

Selser and Fortes have been detained in federal custody since their arrest on February 18, 2015.