California woman sentenced to 22 months for distributing 5 kilos of fentanyl in Massachusetts

BOSTON – A California woman was sentenced Thursday for traveling to Boston and distributing more than five kilograms of fentanyl.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, 25-year-old Brenda Hernandez of Stockton, Cali., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 22 months in prison and two years of supervised release. In October 2023, Hernandez plead guilty to one count of distribution of 400 grams or more of fentanyl.

On May 24, 2022, Hernandez took a flight from California to Boston. After checking into a hotel, Hernandez went to a nearby mail retrieval store, where she picked up a package containing more than five kilograms of fentanyl that had been mailed there from out-of-state.  Later that day, Hernandez distributed the drugs to others in Boston.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; and John E. Mawn Jr., Interim Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan D. O’Shea of the Worcester Branch Office is prosecuting the case.