A Mercer County man was sentenced today to 188 months in prison for distributing fentanyl that caused the death of a Monmouth County woman, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Honig, Quasaan Bethea, 35, of Trenton, previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute fentanyl, which Bethea admitted caused the death of a Monmouth County woman.
According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
On May 15, 2018, a woman from Englishtown, referred to in court as Victim-1, sought out Bethea and his conspirator, Tarashanna Blake, to purchase a particular “brand” or “stamp” of heroin the pair sold known as “CAMEL.”
Bethea and Blake agreed. The packages Victim-1 purchased from Bethea and Blake, however, contained fentanyl and not heroin. Shortly after Bethea and Blake distributed the CAMEL-stamped fentanyl to Victim-1, Victim-1 died of a fentanyl overdose.
Later that same day, law enforcement officers, in an undercover capacity, used Victim-1’s cell phone to purchase more heroin from Bethea and Blake.
Blake spoke with an undercover law enforcement officer and agreed to the sale. At the agreed-upon time and location, the undercover officer advised Blake that they had arrived. Blake responded, “park” and “my [boyfriend] gonna walk to you.”
Bethea parked his vehicle behind the undercover vehicle and exited. As the officer approached Bethea, Bethea discarded objects packaged like heroin and stamped “CAMEL,” which were later determined to be fentanyl.
In addition to the prison term, Bethea was sentenced to three years of supervised release.