Credit: St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office/Wikimedia Commons
Jan. 29 (UPI) — A New Jersey man has been convicted of conspiring to traffic more than a metric ton of fentanyl-related substances and other drugs, and laundering money.
On Monday, the District of New Jersey jury in Newark, convicted William Panzera, 51, of North Haledon of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of furanyl fentanyl and 100 grams or more of 4 fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl, and conspiracy to commit international promotional money laundering.
Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal.
The trial began Jan. 7.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 25. He faces 10 years to life in prison and up to a $10 million fine on the drug trafficking conspiracy charge, and up to 20 years in prison and a maximum $500,000 fine for international money laundering conspiracy.
William Panzera was a member of the La Cosa Nostra Genovese Organized Crime Family, according to a different federal indictment in 2012 that included racketeering conspiracy.
From approximately January 2014 through September 2020, Panzera and other members of a drug trafficking organization imported and distributed controlled substances and controlled substance analogues, including fentanyl, MDMA, methylone and ketamine, according to prosecutors.
From a source in China, co-conspirators ordered controlled substances and analogues. They paid hundreds of thousands of dollars via wire transfer and cryptocurrency, DOJ said.
The substances were distributed throughout New Jersey in bulk and in the form of counterfeit pharmaceutical pills that contained fentanyl analogues.
He was arrested on May 28, 2019.
Eight other defendants pleaded guilty in the case.
Homeland Security Investigations in Newark and Philadelphia investigated the case along with the FBI Newark Field Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Newark Field Office, IRS Criminal Investigation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Newark Police Department and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
The case was part of an operation by the multi-agency Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.