NH Man Pleads Guilty to Drug Dealing

CONCORD, NH – A New Hampshire man pled guilty to charges in U.S. District Court this week after being arrested last year, according to a press statement from U.S. Attorney Emily Gray Rice. Zakee Stuart-Holt, 34, of Manchester, will be sentenced last this year on one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin and fentanyl and one count of money laundering.

According to court documents, the defendant distributed drugs in the Manchester area since at least July 2014. Pursuant to a search warrant, law enforcement recovered approximately 1.8 kilograms of fentanyl and $198,000 in drug proceeds from an apartment occupied by the defendant and another individual. In addition, law enforcement seized approximately $560,000 in drug proceeds from a safe deposit box in the defendant’s name. The defendant was not employed at the time of the conspiracy and the currency recovered by law enforcement constituted proceeds of the defendant’s drug distribution conspiracy.

Stuart-Holt’s plea agreement includes a binding stipulated sentence of 210 months incarceration. It also provides for the forfeiture of any property constituting or derived from the conspiracy. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Nov. 29, 2016, in front of United States District Judge Landya B. McCafferty. At that time, the Court will decide whether to accept the plea agreement and impose the agreed-upon period of incarceration, as well as any other conditions of Stuart-Holt’s sentence.

“I commend the Manchester Police Department and the DEA on their thorough investigation of this case leading to the seizure of such a significant quantity of drugs and drug proceeds,” stated Rice. “Prosecuting those individuals who introduce dangerous narcotics into our community, and ensuring that they do not profit from doing so, is a critical priority of my office.”

DEA Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Ferguson said, “Those suffering from the disease of heroin addiction need access to treatment and recovery. But, those responsible for distributing lethal drugs like heroin and fentanyl to the citizens of New Hampshire need to be held accountable for their actions. In response to the ongoing opioid epidemic, DEA and its local, state and federal partners are committed to bringing to justice those that distribute this poison.”

According to statistics maintained by the State of New Hampshire, over half of the drug overdose deaths in New Hampshire in 2015 were related to fentanyl. Because a single gram of heroin or fentanyl can be used to create multiple individual dosage units that can be sold “on the street,” the quantity of fentanyl involved in this case could have generated hundreds of individual doses of fentanyl, each of which had the potential to cause a fatal overdose.