A Massachusetts woman who helped facilitate a deadly fentanyl ring has been granted clemency by President Joe Biden, the Boston Herald reported on Friday.
Luz Perez DeMartinez, 32, of Lawerence, Massachusetts, was sentence to 11 years in federal prison five years ago for her role in a large-scale fentanyl trafficking ring. She pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.
Federal prosecutors said the drug running organization, led by Sergio Martinez, sold fentanyl to customers from several New England states. DeMartinez is the wife of the organization’s leader and whose primary role was to process the hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits brought in by the drug sales.
She also paid salaries to some of the organization’s employees and collected money to post bail for certain employees who were arrested. She wired drug proceeds out of the country.
“The Martinez drug trafficking organization facilitated the sale of large quantities of lethal fentanyl to residents of New Hampshire,” then-New Hampshire U.S. Attorney Scott Murray said during the sentencing in 2019. “This was a large-scale criminal enterprise that reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits and caused untold misery to its customers and their families. These sentences should serve as warning that long federal prison terms await those who choose to distribute fentanyl in New Hampshire.”
The DeMartinez case was investigated by several local agencies, including the DEA, Massachusetts State Police, Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, Essex DA’s Office, Haverhill Police, Methuen Police, and Lowell Police.
On Thursday Biden issued commuted sentences to roughly 1,500 convicted felons and full pardons to 39 U.S. citizens convicted of nonviolent crimes. It was not clear in the filings why DeMartinez was chosen for clemency by the Biden administration.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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