A Lawrence man is facing drug charges after authorities seized about 9.7 pounds of fentanyl from him.
The drugs were seized from Alonzo Del Carmen Soto Soto, 48, and had a street value of about $500,000, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell said.
Soto Soto was charged with trafficking fentanyl over 100 grams (3.5 ounces) and trafficking fentanyl over 200 grams (7 ounces), the attorney general said.
The takedown operation started in October 2024 when information from a source led police to investigate claims that Soto Soto was distributing fentanyl around Lawrence, the attorney general said.
“Throughout the months-long investigation, troopers conducted a series of nine controlled fentanyl purchases from Soto Soto,” the attorney general said.
After the police learned Soto Soto lived on Arlington Street in Lawrence, they got a search warrant for him and his home.
Soto Soto was arrested outside his home on Jan. 23. The arrest happened after he tried to run from investigators and threw away a bag under a car, according to the attorney general.
The bag had about nine grams (.3 ounce) of cocaine and 15 compressed cylinders — also known as “fingers,” — of what police believed was fentanyl, the attorney general said. The suspected fentanyl weighed about 138 grams (4.8 ounces).
During a search of Soto Soto’s home, investigators also found about 4.25 kilograms (9.3 pounds) of what they believed was fentanyl, the attorney general said.
They also found several different-sized pill presses in his home, the attorney general said.
Pill presses are machines that can press fentanyl into pills that look like prescription pills, such as Oxycontin and Adderall, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration said.
Investigators also found cutting agents in Soto Soto’s home, the attorney general said. Cutting agents are substances that are added to a product to change its composition, according to Sciencedirect.com.
Investigators found $9,000 and Soto Soto’s Dominican Republic passport, the attorney general said.
Soto Soto was ordered to be held on a $100,000 bail during his arraignment in Lawrence District Court on Jan. 24, the attorney general said. He will also have to give up his passport. He’ll return to court on Feb. 24.
Last year in the commonwealth, 2,125 people are believed to have died from opioid-related overdoses. Nationally, drug overdoses kill more than 100,000 people per year.
