Two Northeast Kingdom men have pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to distribute enough fentanyl to kill 2,000 people.
James Bassett, 40, of North Troy made his plea Dec. 19, and Samuel Fuller, 33, of Orleans entered his Jan. 10, U.S. District Court records show.
The pair conspired with two Connecticut men — Luis Luna, 28, and Edwin Martinez, 26, both of Hartford — to sell the drug in the Kingdom, according to prosecutors. Luna and Martinez pleaded guilty, too.
All four men said the conspiracy involved more than 40 grams of fentanyl, the potent opioid linked to scores of overdose deaths in Vermont, according to prosecutors. The Drug Enforcement Administration says as little as two one-hundredths of a gram is lethal for most users — meaning 40 grams could kill 2,000 people.
Luna and Fuller also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to sell more than 28 grams of cocaine base.
Prosecutors said the scheme stretched from the end of 2018 to the beginning of last summer.
About every two weeks, Fuller would collect money from Bassett, prosecutors said. Then Fuller would order fentanyl from Luna, who was supplied by Martinez.
Fuller would drive to Hartford and buy the fentanyl from Luna, along with cocaine base. The Orleans man would drive back to Vermont and split the fentanyl with Bassett.
The two Vermonters sold the drugs throughout the Kingdom, primarily in Caledonia and Orleans counties, prosecutors said.
The four men will be sentenced in April and May, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement released Monday.
Their pleas come in the wake of a wide-ranging crackdown on drug trafficking in the Kingdom last fall.
Federal and state authorities arrested or charged 16 people accused of trafficking fentanyl, heroin and crack cocaine, U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan said at a November press conference in St. Johnsbury.
“We told drug traffickers to stop using the Interstate 91 corridor to ferry drugs to addicted individuals in Orleans and Caledonia counties and other parts of Vermont,” Nolan said in the statement Monday.
“With these convictions involving a drug pipeline running to the Northeast Kingdom from points south, we reiterate those messages,” she added.