CONCORD – Roughly six months after he agreed to plead guilty to charges accusing him of participating in a conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine in the Nashua area, former Nashua resident George Cruz is now scheduled for sentencing in May.

Cruz, 30, is one of three men who pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for New Hampshire to trafficking crack cocaine and other drugs, according to U.S. Attorney Scott W. Murray.

He entered the guilty plea on Dec. 17, while the other two suspects – Melvin Nooks Jr., 29, of Fitchburg, Mass., and Isaiah Kinard, 30, of Mancheter – pleaded guilty on Dec. 18, according to Murray.

Nooks was sentenced Thursday to 120 months in federal prison for his role in the conspiracy, Murray said.

Cruz is scheduled to be sentenced May 12, and Kinard has a Nov. 4 sentencing date, according to Murray, who did not provide the length or other terms of the sentences that Cruz and Kinard face at their respective hearings.

Cruz, whose last known address is 79 Elm St. in Nashua, and Nooks are “responsible for distributing more than 280 grams of crack cocaine” to various customers in Greater Nashua, Murray said in a statement issued when the men entered their guilty pleas in December.

In his Thursday statement, Murray said Nooks’s 120-month, or 10-year, sentence “should put to rest any belief on the part of drug traffickers that they are going to get less attention from the criminal justice system as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Drug trafficking, he said, “has caused grave damage to Nashua and other New Hampshire communities,” adding that law enforcement of all levels continue to work together “to deter the sale of crack cocaine and other dangerous drugs.”

Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division, also weighed in on Nooks’s Thursday sentencing.

“Today’s sentence should also serve as an assurance to (Nooks’s) customers, who are trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, that they no longer need to fear his sales calls,” Bonavolonta said.

“The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue our collaborative efforts to identify and dismantle drug

trafficking enterprises like this one in order to stop the flow of illegal narcotics into our neighborhoods.”

Nashua police and FBI agents teamed up on the investigation into the men’s cases, according to Murray’s statement. They were assisted by the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which Murray described as a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional agency that provides supplemental federal funding for the investigation and prosecution of major drug-trafficking operations.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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