A Honduran man living in Puerto Rico and two co-conspirators living in Massachusetts pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a drug bust at an Andover hotel in the summer of 2023.
Linette Davila, 42, of Methuen, Rony Valencia Lopez, 31, of Puerto Rico, and Luis Pena Arias, 28, of Lawrence, entered their pleas in U.S. District Court in Boston Monday.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Pena Arias sold more than 10,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl to an undercover officer on four occasions last summer. Investigators then contacted Valencia Lopez, an associate of Pena Arias who agreed to sell 15 kilograms of cocaine that he said was in Massachusetts.
In September 2023, Valencia Lopez flew to Boston to facilitate the sale and later joined Pena Arias to meet with undercover law enforcement at a hotel in Andover. Davila later arrived at the hotel with four kilograms of cocaine. Investigators arrested all three that evening.
Davila pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, involving 500 grams or more of cocaine, and one count of distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine. U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled Davila’s sentencing for Feb. 26, 2025.
Valencia Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Judge Gorton scheduled Valencia Lopez’s sentencing for Dec. 10, 2024.
Pena Arias pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, involving 5 kilograms or more of cocaine and one count of distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine. Pena Arias also pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of fentanyl, involving variously 400 grams or more of fentanyl and 40 grams or more of fentanyl. Judge Gorton scheduled Pena Arias’s sentencing for Jan. 10, 2025.
The charges carry sentences ranging from five years to live in prsions and fines of up to $10 million.