United States Drug Enforcement Administration

TRENTON, N.J. – Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division Susan A. Gibson and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger announced a Monmouth County, New Jersey, man was sentenced to 188 months in prison for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and fentanyl analogue.

Richard Dobin, 30, of Manasquan, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp to an indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute pills containing cyclopropyl fentanyl, an analogue of fentanyl intended for human consumption, and one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. Judge Shipp imposed the sentence on Nov. 3, 2022, in Trenton federal court.

From February 2017 through August 2017, Dobin led a drug trafficking organization based in Monmouth County, which sold cocaine and fentanyl analogue pills locally and via the Dark Web, the Internet’s black market. The fentanyl analogue pills contained a powerful synthetic opioid with significant abuse potential. Dobin ordered both cocaine and fentanyl analogue on the Dark Web before reselling the drugs in smaller quantities. At the time of his arrest, Dobin was attempting to expand his operation by manufacturing his own pills using pill press machines and raw powders at his stash house located in Middletown, New Jersey. During searches of the stash house and a vehicle used by Dobin’s organization, law enforcement seized more than nine kilograms of fentanyl pills and nearly five kilograms of cocaine.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Shipp sentenced Dobin to four years of supervised release. The court previously ordered the forfeiture of certain cryptocurrency holdings belonging to Dobin, which Dobin had surrendered to law enforcement.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration, New Jersey Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Susan A. Gibson; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), Newark Division, under the direction of under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel; postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge Raimundo Marrero, Philadelphia Division; and special agents of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Matthew Modafferi, Northeast Area Field Office, with the investigation leading to the sentencing. He also thanked the Middletown Police Department for its assistance.

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