Dutchess County resident Allen Peloquin, aka "Ace," age 34, of Poughkeepsie, was taken into custody on Thursday, March 31.
Peloquin was charged with distributing fentanyl-laced heroin that resulted in the death of a woman in Putnam County in Carmel, in Feb. 2020, and a man in Poughkeepsie, in May 2020, said Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Peloquin was also charged with participating in a narcotics conspiracy that distributed fentanyl-laced heroin that resulted in the deaths of a man in Poughquag in Jan. 2020, and a woman in Poughkeepsie in May 2020, the US Attorney's Office said.
As alleged in the complaint, from Jan. 2020 to May 2020, Peloquin and others distributed and sold fentanyl-laced heroin throughout Dutchess County in glassine bags stamped with distinctive red images and wording and were responsible for the overdose deaths of at least four individuals.
After the deaths of the first two victims, the wording and image of the red stamp changed in an apparent effort to evade law enforcement while continuing to distribute the same lethal narcotics, the complaint said.
Upon further investigation by law enforcement—including several undercover purchases of fentanyl-laced heroin from Peloquin and certain of his co-conspirators in which the stamps on the bags purchased matched those on the bags found with the first two victims, the US Attorney's Office said.
He was also identified as the particular dealer who sold fold fentanyl-laced heroin to the second two victims which resulted in their deaths, the complaint said.
Peloquin was charged with:
- Two counts of narcotics distribution resulting in the deaths of victims two and four
- One count of conspiring to distribute and possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl and heroin in the deaths of the four overdose victims.
He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison on each count and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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