United States Drug Enforcement Administration

FEB 28 - CONCORD, N.H. - Michael J. Ferguson Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and United States Attorney Emily Gray Rice announced that Jeannette Hardy, 26, of Manchester, New Hampshire, was sentenced to ten years in federal prison based upon her conviction for conspiracy to distribute heroin and fentanyl.

According to court documents, the defendant distributed drugs in the Manchester, New Hampshire area since at least July of 2014.  Pursuant to a search warrant, law enforcement recovered approximately 1.8 kilograms of fentanyl and $198,000 in drug proceeds from an apartment occupied by the defendant and another individual.  In addition, law enforcement seized approximately $560,000 in drug proceeds from a safe deposit box.  The defendant was not employed at the time of the conspiracy and the currency recovered by law enforcement constituted proceeds of the defendant’s drug distribution conspiracy.  Hardy, who previously had pleaded guilty, also must serve a five-year term of supervised release, following her release from prison.  All of the drug proceeds previously were forfeited to the United States.

“The state of New Hampshire is faced with a fentanyl and heroin crisis unlike ever before,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Ferguson.  “Those suffering from a fentanyl and heroin substance use disorder need treatment and recovery, but those that distribute and profit from spreading this misery need to be held accountable.  This investigation demonstrates the strength of collaborative law enforcement in New Hampshire and our strong partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to aggressively seek and bring to justice anyone who distributes these drugs.”

United States Attorney Rice said, “This prosecution is an example of the ongoing efforts of this office to prosecute those who are distributing fentanyl in New Hampshire.  We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to identity and prosecute distributors of fentanyl and to seize the proceeds from their unlawful and deadly drug distribution businesses.”

According to statistics maintained by the State of New Hampshire, over half of the drug overdose deaths in New Hampshire in 2015 and 2016 were related to fentanyl.  Because a single gram of heroin or fentanyl can be used to create multiple individual dosage units that can be sold “on the street,” the quantity of fentanyl involved in this case could have generated large numbers of individual doses of fentanyl, each of which had the potential to cause a fatal overdose.

This case was supported by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task (OCDETF).  The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.   The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Manchester Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police.