The Daily News of Newburyport
BOSTON — A paramedic from Rowley was sentenced Thursday in federal court for diverting fentanyl intended for patients for his own use and for extracting fentanyl from vials stocked on ambulances and replacing the fentanyl with saline.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Joseph V. Amello, 50, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In June 2017, Amello pleaded guilty to one count of acquiring a controlled substance by deception, fraud, and forgery, and one count of tampering with a consumer product.
In a press release, Acting U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb’s office said that Amello was working as a paramedic for an ambulance company when he stole more than 650 5-milliliter vials of fentanyl for his own use, between November 2014 and August 2015. In addition, beginning around July 1, 2015, Amello removed fentanyl from a number of vials intended for ambulance patients and replaced the fentanyl with saline.
He had faced as much as 10 years in prison and fines that could have reached $500,000 if he had been tried and convicted on all counts.
Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Control Program, made the announcement.
Copyright 2017 The Daily News of Newburyport