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What Felix Acevedo, 28, didn’t know was that law enforcement officers had intercepted the package and removed the deadly synthetic opioid -- which authorities say is 50 times more potent than heroin and up to 100 times more powerful than morphine.
Acevedo could be sent to federal prison for life under federal sentencing guidelines. It won’t be that long but will still be lengthy under the terms of a plea deal he reached with the government.
Exactly how long ordinarily depends on how much a convict cooperates with federal authorities looking to prosecute others for their roles in moving sizable amounts of drugs.
Either way, Acevedo will have to serve just about all of whatever term U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden gives him because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. Sentencing was scheduled for March 2, 2020.
Acevedo collected the package on Feb. 20 in Clifton after conspiring with others to sell it, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Before then, “law enforcement had interdicted the parcel prior to its delivery and removed the 997 grams of fentanyl” that was inside, Carpenito said.
Developed for pain management treatment of cancer patients, fentanyl is often mixed in with heroin by dealers without the users' knowledge. According to the DEA, two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose.
(There are 453,592 milligrams in a pound.)
Acevedo, who reached a plea deal with the government in exchange for leniency, is scheduled to be sentenced on
Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI and inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with the investigation leading to the guilty plea.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Francesca Liquori of the U.S. Attorney’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force/Narcotics Unit in Newark negotiated the plea.
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