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Nicole Benton pleaded guilty in October to charges of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and other controlled substances and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking conspiracy, the US Attorney for Massachusetts said. She will also serve three years of parole once she's released.
Federal investigators said Benton was a small cog in an expansive drug trafficking organization along with co-conspirators Vincent Caruso, his mom Laurie Caruso, and Ernest Johnson. Benton's job was to deliver fake prescription pills filled with fentanyl. The group used multiple large pill presses to make thousands of these pills per hour and take them to street gangs around the North Shore of Massachusetts, the prosecutor said.
Benton is believed to have delivered 100,000 of the pills, which sold for $10-$20 each, investigators said. They found 40 grams of fentanyl pills and a gun at her home during her arrest.
Vincent Caruso was convicted in the sting and received more than 20 years in prison, federal officials said. His mom, Laurie Caruso, was sentenced to nine years behind bars. Johnson, the third leader of the group, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and is set to be scheduled in February.
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