Fentanyl Trafficking Organizer Clarence Nero Sentenced to 264 Months in Federal Prison
On June 24, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Sherman, Grayson County, Texas, Clarence Nero, the organizer of a cross-state fentanyl trafficking conspiracy, was sentenced to 264 months in federal prison, or 22 years. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas announced the sentence the same day.
Nero, 56, of Atlanta, was convicted following a three-day trial of conspiring to traffic fentanyl, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant.
According to information presented in court, Nero was the organizer of a fentanyl trafficking conspiracy that smuggled fentanyl across the United States border into Arizona, and then from Phoenix to New Orleans and the east coast, in a conspiracy that spanned the southern United States.
The break in the case came on February 14, 2022, when Quanita Brown was stopped on Highway 380 in Denton County, Texas. After a police K-9 alerted, officers found 2.5 kilograms of fentanyl hidden in a false compartment in her vehicle. Investigating the source of that fentanyl led authorities to Nero as the principal supplier.
The case was part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide Justice Department initiative. It was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Denton County Sheriff's Office and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Anderson and Chris Rapp.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于德克萨斯州登顿县登顿市的历史县法院大楼，本案关键拦查与登顿县警长办公室的调查发生于登顿县。Aaron Jacobs 摄，CC BY-SA 2.5，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The historic Denton County Courthouse in Denton, Denton County, Texas; the key traffic stop and the Denton County Sheriff's Office investigation in this case took place in Denton County. Photo by Aaron Jacobs, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
