United States Drug Enforcement Administration

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Michael J. Ferguson Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that, Samuel Spivack, 32, of Burlington, Vermont was sentenced to three years of supervised release after his guilty plea to charges that he distributed heroin. U.S. District Court Judge William K. Sessions III ordered that Spivack serve the first three months of supervised release confined to his home with location monitoring, perform 100 hours of community service, and pay a $2,000 fine. Judge Sessions also ordered Spivack to write the court a yearly report detailing his progress at rehabilitation.

According to court records, Spivack was a long-time heroin dealer in the Burlington area who sold heroin to support his own addiction to the substance. During the course of his career as a heroin dealer, Spivack worked for multiple different out-of-state suppliers. In 2015, the Burlington Police Department narcotics unit used a confidential informant to conduct a series of controlled purchases of heroin from Spivack. This investigation led to Spivack’s federal prosecution.

For his crime, Spivack faced a statutory maximum term of 20 years in prison. The United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are advisory, recommended that Spivack receive a prison term between 27 and 35 months. In determining that a significantly more lenient sentence was appropriate in this case, Judge Sessions considered Spivack’s lack of a serious criminal record, the fact that he sold heroin to support his own severe addiction, and his successful efforts at drug treatment.

United States Attorney Eric Miller commended the efforts of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Burlington Police Department, the Vermont State Police, and the Northern Vermont Drug Task Force for their coordinated work in this investigation. United States Attorney Miller noted that this case is part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Vermont Heroin Initiative, which is a coordinated effort by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to combat heroin distribution in Vermont. According to United States Attorney Miller, one aspect of the Vermont Heroin Initiative is to focus law enforcement and prosecutorial resources on local dealers, like Spivack, who regularly facilitate the illegal activities of out-of-state heroin traffickers.