Former Barre man charged with fentanyl possession

BURLINGTON — A Walden man, who has been under investigation by state and federal authorities on drug charges, has been ordered jailed after police said they seized 10,500 bags of fentanyl on Interstate 91 in Orange County.

Antonio Vergara, 29, formerly of Barre, appeared in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Friday afternoon to face a criminal complaint for knowingly and intentionally possessing a felony amount of fentanyl.

Vergara drove at speeds in excess of 120 miles per hour in a white Audi Q3 in both Massachusetts and Vermont to try to avoid arrest on Wednesday, FBI Special Agent Colin Simons said in court papers.

Vermont State Police Patrol Sgt. Lyle Decker eventually laid down a strand of road spikes on the pavement to try to stop the car near Newbury, officials said. The spikes punctured the front left tire of the Audi and Vergara continued for about two miles before stopping by the median, Simons wrote.

Investigators subsequently found 5,500 suspected fentanyl tablets in the Audi, which is registered to Vergara’s live-in girlfriend and a third person, Simons said. The Vermont Drug Task Force has seen Vergara drive the car, according to Simons, who said his investigative work includes various violations, including violent crimes and gangs.

The next day as investigators surveyed the scene where the chase ended, they found another 5,000 bags discarded in the median less than a half mile from where Vergara stopped the car, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nate Burris said in court papers.

Right after the first seizure of drugs from the car, Vergara maintained the fentanyl was for his personal use and not distribution, Simons said. He wrote Vergara maintained he was a user and not a dealer.

Simons said the initial 5,500 pills equated to about 113 grams, which is about 4 ounces.

Simons, a 15-year veteran of the FBI, wrote that based on his experience and training that quality is more likely for distribution.

The Vermont Drug Task Force and FBI in Vermont were working in conjunction with the FBI’s Western Massachusetts Gang Task Force on the investigation, records show.

When Massachusetts State Police initially attempted to stop Vergara, he drove in excess of 120 mph, records show. He drove through a construction zone, motored into the breakdown lane on multiple occasions to pass slower moving traffic, and steered between cars operating in the left and right lanes of I-91. The pursuit in Massachusetts was called off due to the speed and public safety concern, Simons said.

A Vermont drug task force detective later spotted the car in Vermont and he estimated the speed in excess of 120 mph, Simons said. Once Decker deployed the spikes and the car stopped, detectives spotted an open black plastic bag on the front passenger seat with what appeared to be pre-packaged heroin/fentanyl.

Buris, in seeking Vergara’s detention, noted he was a repeat offender. Vergara has a conviction for possession with intent to distribute cocaine in Massachusetts for an incident that happened about one mile from where the high-speed pursuit began in the new case, Buris said.

“The defendant appears to have been undeterred by his prior arrest and conviction for similar conduct, and the risk of further recidivism poses a substantial risk to the community in light of the dangers associated with the distribution of fentanyl,” Buris wrote.

He noted his total flight in the new case was over 130 miles and posed a substantial risk to other motorists and demonstrates Vergara’s disregard for the safety and well-being of others.

He also faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, if convicted.

Vergara is jailed at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town.

The defendant’s older brother also is well known to drug investigators in Vermont. In 2017, his brother, Orlando Vergara, then 26, was sentenced to 40-months in federal prison after he was caught with heroin shortly after getting off the Amtrak train in Berlin. He was in a vehicle stopped for speeding headed south on Interstate 89.

The sentence was part of a binding plea agreement imposed on the judge. The federal sentencing guidelines, which are advisory, had proposed a penalty between 151 and 188 months in part because he had two previous felony drug convictions, records show. Those were later vacated because of misconduct by chemists at the Massachusetts State Police lab.

Barre Town Police had also reported Orlando Vergara had been the source of 50 heroin bags seized in May 2015 in an unrelated case, court records show.

Chief Federal Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford also told Vergara he would be on five years federal supervision when he was released from prison. Vergara subsequently admitted in March three violations of those terms and is currently detained pending sentencing, records show.