15 Indicted In NH Accused Of Lawrence-Based Drug Trafficking Operation

NASHUA, NH — Fifteen men and women from New Hampshire and Massachusetts were recently indicted, accused of being involved in a Lawrence, MA-based drug trafficking enterprise.

The indictments were based on a multi-month investigation of an “alleged leader” of the operation who used a social media messaging app and other means to coordinate runners in the Bay State to deliver drugs in the Granite State.

The drug-running occurred between October 2021 and August.

Officials said investigators seized more than 1 kilogram of fentanyl. A review of the messages showed that the enterprise had negotiated deals involving more than 14 kilograms of fentanyl with “various large-scale drug dealers in New Hampshire and a gun-for-drug trade.” A kilo is valued at around $1 million and could kill 500,000 people.

Seven of the defendants are from Massachusetts: Melvin Villar-Lugo, 25, of Lawrence; Felix Manuel Mejia-Gonzalez, 32, of Lawrence; Yonathan Elias Baez-Santos, 22, of Methuen; Elaine Soto-Villar, 25, of Methuen; Candido Armando Diaz-Fernandez, 30, Dedham; Julio Rafael Mejia-Baez, 23, of Boston; and Alexander Lechappelle, 26, of Lawrence.

Baez-Santos, Diaz-Fernandez, Mejia-Baez are all in custody. Soto-Villar is serving a Massachusetts state prison sentence for a felony drug conviction.

Eight defendants were from New Hampshire. They include Erika Barlow, 32, of Nashua; Johnnie Boynton, 51, of Littleton; Benjamin Bryant, 33, of Manchester; Benjamin Conkright, 28, of Whitefield; Aaron Loew, 44, of Plaistow; Anthony Monbleau, 32, of Brookline; Dylan Painter, 26, of Nashua; and Cody Stanford, 29, of Pembroke.

Barlow, Boynton, Conkright, Loew, Monbleau, and Painter are in custody. Stanford is in custody, serving a New Hampshire state prison sentence for a felony drug conviction. According to investigators, Bryant died on Sept. 16, three days after being indicted.

The suspects could face as much as two decades in prison each.

Along with the DEA, police from Littletown, Nashua, Salem, and Whitefield police departments and New Hampshire State Police troopers, as well as the Lawrence and Methuen police departments and Mass. State Police.

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