NJ Man Gets Nearly 16 Years for Distributing Fentanyl that Killed a Woman in 2018

A man from Trenton has been sentenced for distributing fentanyl that caused the death of a Monmouth County woman in 2018.

35-year-old Quasaan Bethea will be spending the next 188 months, or almost 16 years, behind bars on one count of conspiring to distribute fentanyl, which he admitted caused the death of an unidentified woman, said U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.

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The sentence was handed-down in federal court in Trenton on Wednesday.

According to court documents,

On May 15, 2018, a woman from Englishtown, New Jersey, 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..

Honig's office says later that day, undercover cops used the victim's phone to buy more heroin from Bethea and Blake. As an officer approached Bethea, he allegedly 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.