Lawrence pair busted in fentanyl, heroin ring

Two Lawrence men are behind bars after authorities investigating a drug trafficking ring say they seized more than 1,200 grams of a suspected deadly combination of heroin and fentanyl, a concoction officials have blamed on hundreds of Bay State overdose deaths.

Cuesta Gonzalez, 34, and Adalgisa Vallega Garcia, 25, were arrested Wednesday night as the result of a joint federal and state investigation involving the attorney general’s office, the state police transportation drug unit, the Portsmouth Drug Enforcement Administration and the New Hampshire state police narcotics and investigations unit, the Office of the Attorney General Maura Healey announced yesterday.

Gonzalez was arrested after arranging for and selling about 460 grams of what is believed to be a mix of heroin and fentanyl, Healey said, adding that another 800 grams were found while officers were arresting Garcia at a Lawrence apartment.

In a statement, Michael J. Ferguson, the special agent in charge of the DEA New England Division said “opioid abuse is at epidemic levels” across the region.

“Those responsible for distributing a lethal drug like fentanyl to the citizens of Massachusetts and New Hampshire need to be held accountable for their actions,” he said. “DEA is committed to aggressively pursue drug trafficking organizations or individuals who are coming from out of state to distribute this poison in order to profit and destroy people’s lives.”

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health estimates that 2,069 people — the highest number ever recorded in the state and a 15 percent increase year-overyear — died from opioid overdoses in 2016, Healey’s office said. The number of deaths from opioid overdoses involving fentanyl continued to climb last year, with more than 60 percent of the fatal overdoses last year involving the lethal drug.

Both suspects were arraigned yesterday on a drug trafficking charge in Lawrence District Court and ordered held on $800,000 cash bail.

They are both due back in court July 6 for a pretrial hearing.