CONCORD – A Laconia man was sentenced in federal court to 160 months in federal prison with four years of supervised release for one count of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, in a case brought by New Hampshire’s Homeland Security Task Force.
Benjamin M. Fields, 43, of Laconia, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Laplante. According to related pleadings and statements made in court, in October 2023, law enforcement officers received information that a drug trafficking organization (DTO) operating in Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, was trafficking narcotics to customers and sub-distributors in New Hampshire and Maine using text messages and social media messaging apps. From the fall of 2023 into the spring of 2024, law enforcement officers conducted a series of controlled drug purchases and court-authorized searches of residences utilized by the DTO that resulted in seizures of approximately two and a half kilograms of fentanyl, 250 grams of methamphetamine and 28 grams of cocaine, and the recovery of handguns. During the investigation, law enforcement officers conducted additional enforcement operations, including searches of DTO-controlled social media accounts and mobile phones, which revealed communications with numerous sub-distributors arranging drug purchases totaling approximately 20 kilograms of fentanyl, one kilogram of methamphetamine and 200 grams of cocaine. Six DTO sub-distributors also sought to trade firearms, including shotguns, rifles, and handguns for narcotics. Fields was one of several New Hampshire-based sub-distributors, who purchased for redistribution a total of more than 3 kilograms of fentanyl, among other controlled substances, within a six-month period in 2023 and 2024, for resale to his own customers, and he sought to trade a firearm for drugs during his dealings with the DTO. “This defendant has a serious criminal record and the evidence revealed in this investigation showed that he was a major retailer of highly addictive substances that have ravaged New Hampshire communities and families with addiction for years,” said Erin Creegan, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire. “Mr. Fields was a significant hub connecting others in a multi-state drug trafficking enterprise, and for that he has received a very serious prison sentence. I am grateful for the state and federal partnership that has helped put this dangerous individual behind bars for a long time, and we will continue to dismantle organizations and prosecute individuals profiting from the illicit sale of narcotics.” “Today’s sentence holds accountable a defendant who possessed a staggering quantity of fentanyl and has demonstrated a repeated disregard for the law,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Jarod Forget, New England Field Division. “Fentanyl trafficking is not a victimless crime—it destroys families and takes lives. The fact that this defendant was willing to participate in a scheme involving the exchange of a firearm for drugs further demonstrates the dangerous intersection of narcotics trafficking and violence. DEA and our law-enforcement partners will continue to pursue those who profit from this deadly poison and work to ensure they are held accountable for the harm they cause in our communities.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration led the investigation. The Hudson Police Department, the Bedford Police Department, the Nashua Police Department, the Manchester Police Department, the Laconia Police Department, the New Hampshire State Police, the Strafford County Sheriff’s Department, and Paralegal Specialist Christine True provided valuable assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cesar Vega prosecuted this case. This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF New Hampshire comprises agents and officers from FBI, HSI, IRS, DEA, ATF, USMS, and DSS with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire.