Former Massachusetts EMT Charged With Fentanyl Tampering
I don't know about you, Berkshire County, but I couldn't tell you the last day that went by that I didn't hear the word "fentanyl". I know. Dirty word. Dirty drug. Fortunately, our Justice Department is continuing to punish those who have had illicit connections with the drug.
According to a media statement from the Department of Justice Boston, a former paramedic has recently been charged in connection with allegedly tampering with liquid fentanyl vials at the ambulance company she once worked.
At a later date, Candice Mangan, 41, of Medford, will appear in a Boston courtroom. She is being charged with consumer product tampering. According to the charges, Mangan committed this product tampering during the time she worked part-time for a Massachusetts ambulance service company, from approximately March through early October 2020.
Mangan, whose full-time job is as a licensed EMT paramedic, allegedly tampered with three fentanyl citrate vials by removing fentanyl citrate and replacing it with saline on or about September 30, 2022. The liquid remaining in the vials only contained roughly 4.4%, 6.8%, and 24.2% of the declared concentration of fentanyl citrate.
Mangan could face up to 10 years in prison, plus three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing will be imposed by a federal court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Bradley E. Greenburg, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations; and Margret R. Cooke, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
For more on the story, you can check out the Department of Justice's website here.