Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)
PROVIDENCE – A North Providence man who sold more than seven thousand fentanyl-laced pills and a firearm while under surveillance by members of the Rhode Island FBI Safe Streets Task Force has been sentenced to six years in federal prison, announced United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha.
Keurys Pena, 35, was sentenced on Tuesday by U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., to 72 months of incarceration to be followed by four years of federal supervised release. Pena pleaded guilty on August 1, 2024, to possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl and possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a crime.
According to information presented to the court, on eight occasions between June and October 2022, while under law enforcement surveillance, Pena sold and delivered 7,080 fentanyl-laced pills weighing a combined total of approximately 876 grams, or roughly two pounds. During a transaction on September 7, 2022, Pena also sold an individual a firearm in exchange for a cash payment. The drugs and the firearm were quickly seized by members of law enforcement following each transaction.
Pena was arrested at his North Providence residence on October 18, 2022, and was found to be in possession of 5.38 grams of cocaine, 11.89 grams of a powder mixture containing fentanyl, and 22.84 grams of a substance containing methamphetamine. On that same date, a court-authorized search warrant was executed at a stash house/rental property maintained by Pena in Pawtucket where law enforcement seized a powder substance containing 484.12 grams of fentanyl and a mixture containing 108.6 grams of methamphetamine.
Court records illustrate that Pena was previously convicted multiple times and sentenced on drug, conspiracy, forgery and breaking and entering charges. At the time of his arrest in this most recent matter, Pena was serving a term of Rhode Island state probation, having been convicted in Rhode Island Superior Court in 2015 on charges of assault and escape by an inmate. He was sentenced to 12 years – with 15 months to serve, 165 months suspended with probation.
This Project Safe Neighborhoods case was prosecuted in U.S. District Court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey A. Erickson.
The matter was investigated by the Rhode Island FBI Safe Street Task Force and the Pawtucket Police Department.
The FBI Safe Streets Task Force consists of agents and law enforcement officers from the FBI, Rhode Island State Police, the Cranston, Woonsocket, Pawtucket, West Warwick, and Central Falls Police Departments, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. In 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
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