[T]wo St. Johnsbury residents are being held on charges connected with the seizure of 4,000 bags of heroin laced with fentanyl, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Richard Trudeau, 31, and Julie Hurst, 40, were arrested Sept. 6 after a stop on Interstate 91 in Springfield as part of a probe led by Vermont State Police, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI.
The traffic stop came after the State Police Drug Task Force had bought 200 bags of heroin from Trudeau and Hurst in August as part of the operation, according to an affidavit signed by Wade Cochran, a detective for the task force. The contents of the bags tested positive for fentanyl.
The investigators also arrested Luis A. Rodriguez, 22, of Holyoke, Massachusetts, whom they believe is a supplier of heroin and fentanyl in Caledonia County. Rodriguez had approximately 10,000 bags of fentanyl-laced heroin, according to federal authorities.
The approximately 14,000 total bags of fentanyl-laced heroin had an approximate street value of $95,000.
Christina Nolan, U.S. attorney for the district of Vermont, said in a statement that combating the fentanyl crisis was a top priority for her office.
“These seizures of the deadly drug fentanyl potentially saved thousands of Vermonters,” she said. “At the same time, our law enforcement community deprived a dangerous drug trafficking organization of nearly $100,000 in proceeds that would have been earned on the backs of the suffering addicted.”
Hurst and Trudeau appeared in court Sept. 7 on charges of conspiring to distribute heroin and fentanyl and are still in custody. Neither Treudeau’s lawyer, Mark Kaplan, nor Hurst’s lawyer, Lisa Shelkrot, immediately responded to requests for comment.
