The streets of Boston are a little safer today, as Quenty Ogando, a 45-year-old man from the Dominican Republic, was slapped with a 12-year prison sentence for operating a prolific fentanyl trafficking outfit. Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley dropped the gavel on Ogando, also handing him five years of supervised release following his incarceration.
Ogando, who had made Beantown his base of operations, copped to a count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess, with intent to distribute fentanyl in October 2023. For about two months, from September to November the previous year, he had masterminded a bustling pill press scheme. This operation cranked out and shipped numerous parcels filled with counterfeit pills, including those laced with the deadly opioid fentanyl.
A November raid of Ogando's digs turned up a staggering haul — 20 kilograms of various colored pills, more than 20 kilograms of loose powder, stacks of packages and mailing labels, and three industrial-grade pill presses. Among the illicit bounty, authorities tagged and bagged over 11 kilograms of fentanyl, and found caches of heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine as well.
Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and top brass from Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in New England, announced the successful crack down. The collaborative sting also involved muscle from the Boston Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in an announcement obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
