Rafael Lopez-Carrasco Gets 17 Years for Fentanyl Conspiracy

RAFAEL NICOLAS LOPEZ-CARRASCO, a/k/a Jose Casellas, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, is headed to federal prison for 204 months after pleading guilty to a conspiracy that flooded New Hampshire and Massachusetts with lethal doses of heroin and fentanyl. The 204-month sentence, handed down in U.S. District Court in Concord, marks the end of a years-long operation that moved multi-kilogram shipments of synthetic opioids across state lines.

Court documents reveal Lopez-Carrasco was deep in the drug trade as far back as July 2014. On June 24, 2015, he orchestrated the delivery of approximately two kilograms of fentanyl to an address on Winter Street in Manchester, New Hampshire. The next year, on June 25, 2016, federal agents intercepted him attempting to deliver another three kilograms of fentanyl in Massachusetts. A raid on his Lawrence residence uncovered an additional kilogram of fentanyl, 922 grams of heroin, $12,000 in cash, several kilograms of cutting agent, and three firearms.

The seized narcotics represent a death toll narrowly avoided. State data shows fentanyl was tied to the majority of overdose deaths in New Hampshire in 2016. With a single gram capable of producing dozens of street-level doses, the six kilograms linked to Lopez-Carrasco could have generated hundreds of potentially fatal hits. Each transaction, each delivery, carried the risk of another body in the morgue.

U.S. Attorney Emily Gray Rice made no apologies for the aggressive prosecution: “Prosecuting those individuals who introduce dangerous narcotics into our community, and ensuring that they do not profit from doing so, is a critical priority of my office.” She credited the Manchester Police Department and the DEA for dismantling the supply chain before more lives were lost.

Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Ferguson of the DEA emphasized the broader crisis: “Opioid abuse is at epidemic levels in New Hampshire. Fentanyl and heroin are causing overdose deaths across the Granite State in record numbers.” He called the case proof of what coordinated law enforcement can achieve against out-of-state traffickers exploiting local addiction.

The investigation was part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a federal initiative targeting major drug networks. Investigators included the Manchester Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, and DEA. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Georgiana L. Konesky and Donald Feith. Lopez-Carrasco’s federal sentence runs concurrently with a 10 to 12-year state sentence; upon release, he will face deportation.