New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
A Dominican national was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for his role in a heroin and fentanyl trafficking organization operating primarily in Southeastern Massachusetts. He was one of twenty-five individuals charged in a Southeastern Massachusetts heroin ring in 2015.
Eric Matos, 37, a Dominican national residing in Lawrence, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. to 121 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Matos, who has previously been deported, will be deported again upon completion of his sentence. On March 8, 2017, Matos pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute heroin.
In October 2015, Matos was arrested and charged along with 24 others in connection with a heroin trafficking ring operating in southeastern Massachusetts; an April 2016 superseding indictment brought the number of defendants charged in the case to 26. These charges are the result of a 15-month investigation into heroin and fentanyl trafficking in Taunton and surrounding communities.
Matos supplied at least 200 grams of heroin and at least 296 grams of fentanyl to the drug operation led by co-defendant Dedwin Cruz-Rivera and his brothers Francis Gonsalez-Romero and Manuel Romero-Gonsalez. Matos supplied other heroin and fentanyl dealers as well.
