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DEA agents were likely trying to set up a convicted Farmington drug dealer on a trafficking rap until he unexpectedly offered to sell a confidential informant a stolen handgun paving the way for what could be a 10-year prison sentence on a weapons charge.
According to an affidavit filed by DEA Special Agent John R. Daly and filed in U.S. District Court in Concord, the sting on Dean Smoronk began on Oct. 29 when an undercover informant advised DEA that Smoronk was in possession of crystal meth that they could purchase.
Smoronk, of 979 Meaderboro Road, is currently being held on no bail at an undisclosed corrections facility while awaiting possible indictment by a grand jury in federal court, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Concord told The Rochester Voice earlier this week.
Smoronk's Farmington home was the site of the grisly murders of his longtime girlfriend Christine Sullivan, 48; and an acquaintance of hers, Jenna Pellegrini, 32, of Barrington, who were both stabbed to death early the morning of Jan. 27, 2017, officials say.
While Smoronk has never been implicated or charged in their deaths, he does have a record of drug involvement, including an arrest in South Carolina with his now-deceased girlfriend in 2014, and in June 2017 when he was arrested on Interstate 95 in Virginia for drug possession.
He returned to New Hampshire last June a couple of months after his release from a Hanover County jail following a yearlong stay there.
Following the confidential informant's initial outreach to DEA, the informant went to Smoronk's Farmington home the same evening and during an audio recorded meeting purchased 47.3 grams of meth for $2,000, the affidavit states. A few days later, however, a DEA lab informed Daly the meth was fake and not real meth.
About a week later the confidential informant confronted Smoronk over the phony meth buy, the affidavit states, leading to Smoronk saying he, too, had been duped and gotten bad meth. During the conversation Smoronk told the informant he had "received a stolen handgun that he wanted to sell it and inquired if the confidential informant wanted to purchase the firearm," the affidavit says.
Then on Nov. 15 the DEA directed the informant to contact Smoronk to confirm he still had the gun. When he did, Smoronk noted he still had the gun and also had a new supply of meth, which he would bring to the informant's Rochester area home for purchase.
The informant was then directed to set up a buy where they would purchase the gun for $1,000 and one ounce of meth for $1,000 for a total of $2,000.
That same day DEA established surveillance in the area of the Rochester-area residence of the informant and, according to the affidavit, Smoronk and another unidentified individual arrived around 7:30 p.m.
During the meeting Smoronk pulled a Sig Sauer P-320 9 mm pistol from his waistband. The gun came with a loaded magazine of 15 hollow point bullets and an attached tactical flashlight, the affidavit states. The gun was found to have been stolen out of Milton.
Smoronk was then arrested on Dec. 20 for allegedly being in possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a stolen firearm as part of a drug sweep throughout the Greater Rochester area conducted by DEA, State Police and local police departments.
A week later at a probable cause hearing in U.S. district court it was determined he should be held without bail. Prosecutors now have a month to seek an indictment against him.
His next hearing in federal court is set for Jan. 22.
Meanwhile, Timothy Verrill, 36, of Dover, the man accused in the deaths of the two women, is expected to begin his murder trial next May in Strafford County Superior Court.
Smoronk could serve up to 10 years in prison if he's found guilty of the South Carolina meth charge filed there, a court spokesman said.
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