How pink heart shaped fentanyl led to Mass. father's 18-year prison sentence
A Massachusetts father missed the birth of his daughter after he was arrested in connection with leading a large-scale drug trafficking organization that resulted in an overdose death in Salem and possibly targeted teenagers.
Emilio Garcia, also known as 'Six,' 27, of Lynn, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris to 18 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. In February, Garcia pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and possess controlled substances with intent to distribute, one count of possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
In July 2023, an investigation into an overdose death in Salem led investigators to the large-scale drug trafficking organization led by Garcia, with assistance from at least four other individuals. On Nov. 1, 2023, searches at four locations in Lynn frequented by Garcia resulted in what is believed to be one of the largest single-location seizures of fentanyl and methamphetamine in Massachusetts, officials said.
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In total, an estimated eight million individual doses of fentanyl and methamphetamine laced pills and powder was seized. The street value is believed to be upwards of $8 million. The seizure also included counterfeit Adderall pills, counterfeit Percocet pills and nine kilograms (20 pounds) of pink heart shaped fentanyl-laced pills pressed to look like the Valentine's Day 'Sweethearts' candies, also known as 'conversation hearts.'
'The nature of this design would facilitate the marketing of these controlled substances to teenagers, and allow an individual to more readily and easily possess them in a controlled environment, such as a school, because they would be mistaken for simple candies,' court documents state.
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The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services' Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Division had to conduct a decontamination of one of the Lynn locations due to multiple children living there.
Garcia's criminal history began in high school in connection with assault and battery and marijuana possession.
Then, when he was 18, he agreed to sell his friend marijuana. Instead, he had an accomplice point a gun at the friend's head, while Garcia pushed him to the ground, searched the friend's pockets and stole a wallet, $675 cash, an iPhone and watch.
'Strangely, this path was not thrust upon the Defendant. Unlike many offenders, the Defendant was raised in a middle-class two-parent home with hardworking parents. Despite their positive example, the Defendant has basically never worked as an adult,' court documents read.
However, Garcia stated that does not accurately reflect his childhood, and that it left out his time in foster care.
'In his early years, Mr. Garcia lived with his family in subsidized housing in a rough neighborhood in Lynn. Drug activity occurred regularly in the neighborhood; it was something he lived with and he believed it was normal,' Garcia's attorney wrote.
Garcia said his father had an alcohol problem and physically abused him.
It wasn't until he was a teenager that his basic needs were consistently met.
'But by that time, he was already on a totally different path than is typically the case for a middle class teen, even one who rebels and acts out. By the age of 14, he was experimenting with drugs; was increasingly in conflict with his father, and he often ran away from home," the attorney wrote.
Read more: It was labeled and looked like Adderall. But thousands of pills were meth and caffeine
Garcia dropped out of high school during ninth grade but passed the High School Equivalency Test (HiSET) on July 31, 2014. He then attended North Shore Community College from September through December 2014, and went to New England Tractor Trailor Training School in North Andover from April through June, 2019, studying HVAC.
But he claims the COVID-19 pandemic made finding work difficult.
Officials said he has been supporting himself and his girlfriend of seven years through drug dealing as bank records reflect hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash deposits since 2021.
He also went to Encore and Twin River Casino two or three times per week and participated in daily sports betting, spending hundreds or thousands of dollars, court records state.
Prosecutors asked for 19 years in prison as they felt that reflected 'the extraordinary leap from armed robber to literal drug kingpin.' It is also a significant difference from the possibility of life in prison, which could've happened if he did 'not elected to promptly plead guilty.'
His attorney asked for 17 years.
'Most painfully for Mr. Garcia, he will never be able to the be a father to Amira while she grows from infancy to young adulthood in the way that he would have wanted: in person, as a constant presence helping with the day to day events of her life,' the attorney wrote. 'Though he has never been able to touch his daughter, as he was detained when she was born, Mr. Garcia loves her dearly.'
The judge sentenced him in the middle to 18 years in prison. He is also required to forfeit multiple guns.
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