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Nashua man pleads guilty to alleged role in Lawrence-based drug distribution ring

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Jul 13, 2020

James Henry, 52, formerly of 120 Palm St., Nashua

CONCORD – James Henry, the now 51-year-old former Nashua man who Nashua police arrested a year and a half ago on multiple drug possession and intent to distribute charges, has now pleaded guilty to a federal charge accusing him of working as a “sub-distributor” in a drug ring that allegedly operated out of Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Henry, who in the past has listed Nashua addresses of 24 Scripture St. and 120 Palm St., entered a guilty plea to one count of attempted possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Scott W. Murray.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 14, according to a statement by Murray’s office.

ìStopping interstate drug trafficking is a top priority for the U.S. Attorneyís office,î Murray said in the statement.

“In order to protect public health and safety, we will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to identify and prosecute those who are responsible for distributing illegal drugs in the Granite State.î

It was in December 2018 that Nashua police arrested Henry, initially charging him with operating with a suspended license and registration after officers pulled him over as he drove through Nashua.

But the two charges were just the beginning; in searching Henry, officers found roughly $1,000 in cash on him, and in his vehicle allegedly found a scale, a small plastic bag, “items that are consistent with drug use,” a prosecutor said at Henry’s subsequent arraignment and bail hearing in Superior Court in Nashua.

Later, according to police and the prosecutor, officers found a substance believed to be either fentanyl or heroin, along with a quantity of crack cocaine, hidden in Henryís underwear.

According to police at the time, Henry said he had gone to Massachusetts and allegedly purchased 20 grams of heroin to sell in Nashua.

At the time of Henry’s arrest, a network of local, county, state and federal law enforcement personnel had been investigating the Lawrence-based distribution organization for about a year, according to Murray.

Authorities determined that “beginning in, or before, December 2017,” a “drug distribution organization operating in Lawrence” was maintaining “a series of telephone numbers that were used to receive orders for illegal drugs, and to facilitate transactions involving those substances,” Murray’s office stated.

The organization “primarily supplied fentanyl in ‘finger’ units of 10 grams each, and powder cocaine and cocaine base – ‘crack’ – in either 3.5-gram (eighth-ounce) units or 28-gram (full ounce) units,” according to the statement.

The organization, in order to “distribute its product throughout the northern New England region, relied on a network of sub-distributors from New Hampshire and elsewhere, who would travel to Lawrence to pick up their orders and then redistribute the fentanyl, cocaine, and crack throughout northern New England.

“On June 19, 2019,” Murray’s statement continues, “the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arrested individuals involved in running the organization. “During the arrests, the DEA seized the telephone that the organization (allegedly) used to arrange drug transactions with its customers.”

Once in possession of that phone, according to the statement, DEA agents “assumed the identity” of the organization’s dispatcher and began setting up purported drug transactions with customers, who, unaware they were speaking with DEA agents rather than the organization’s dispatcher, called in to place their “orders” of controlled substances.

Among those alleged customers was Henry, who, according to the statement, called the “dispatcher” on June 25, 2019, allegedly seeking “to order quantities of fentanyl and crack cocaine.”

Henry then allegedly provided a description of his vehicle to the person he thought was the dispatcher, who then directed Henry to a parking lot in Nashua, which the statement doesn’t identify.

“Henry was told that when he arrived, he was to leave the money in the car’s center console and ‘take a walk,'” according to the statement.

Several officers conducting surveillance watched as Henry drove into the lot, parked and, as instructed, walked away from the car.

“After a few minutes, the DEA (agent) texted Henry and told him to return to his vehicle,” according to the statement.

“When he did so, officers placed him under arrest and seized the telephone” with which he had been communicating with the agents he thought was the dispatcher.

“Following the arrest,” according to the statement, “Henry admitted he had traveled to Nashua to buy ‘dope and crack.'”

The investigation involved numerous law enforcement agencies, according to Murray, including the DEA, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcementís Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, police from Nashua, Hudson, Manchester, Goffstown and Salem, and Methuen and Andover, Massachusetts police, New Hampshire and Massachusetts state police, the Rockingham County Sheriffís office and the Essex County, Massachusetts Sheriff’s office.

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

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