Newark Man Gets 19½ Years for Fentanyl Ring and Laundering Cash

A 52-year-old Newark resident received a lengthy prison term for importing and distributing fentanyl analogues and concealing over $300,000 in drug money.

Newark Man Gets 19½ Years for Fentanyl Ring and Laundering Cash

A federal judge handed a 52-year-old Newark resident a sentence of 234 months in prison, plus five years of supervised release, for running a narcotics operation and washing the profits. Thomas Padovano learned his punishment after admitting to distributing large quantities of synthetic opioids and hiding the illicit earnings.

Court filings indicate that between roughly January 2014 and September 2020, Padovano teamed with co-conspirators to bring in and sell various banned substances and their chemical lookalikes. The group sourced materials from a supplier in China, then moved fentanyl-related compounds, methylone, and ketamine throughout New Jersey. Some shipments arrived in bulk; others were pressed into fake prescription tablets containing fentanyl analogues.

Separately, Padovano conducted financial moves to disguise where over $300,000 in drug revenue came from and who truly owned it.

Homeland Security Investigations in Newark spearheaded the case, drawing help from the FBI, postal inspectors, IRS criminal agents, customs officers, and local police departments. Attorneys from the Justice Department's Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey prosecuted the matter.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

Source: DOJ Justice News