Court records show Smoronk being held in solitary confinement while awaiting trial

The home of Dean Smoronk during a search by law enforcement in 2017; inset Dean Smoronk. (Background, Rochester Voice file photo; insert, Virginia State Police mugshot)

CONCORD - In a move that could reveal federal law enforcement's assessment that a reputed Farmington drug dealer's influence could reach well beyond prison walls, indicted drug trafficker Dean Smoronk is being held in isolation while waiting for weapons and drug cases to move forward in U.S. district court in Concord.

Smoronk, 57, formerly of 979 Meaderboro Road, is being held at an undisclosed New Hampshire correctional facility, officials said last month.

A January court order by a U.S. magistrate allows for Smoronk's confinement "to be held separately, to the extent practicable, from persons awaiting or serving sentences or being held in custody pending appeal."

The order was signed Jan. 9 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea K. Johnstone.

Meanwhile, Smoronk's last Facebook post noted he'd recently celebrated a birthday around Dec. 6.

He was arrested two weeks later for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

According to an affidavit filed by DEA Special Agent John R. Daly and filed in U.S. District Court in Concord, a 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.

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.

It was not immediately clear whether it was possible the feds had decided to indict on the alleged Oct. 29 meth buy since Smoronk may have believed it was meth even though it turned out to be fake.

U.S. District Court officials were unavailable for immediate comment over the weekend.

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.

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.

Meanwhile, Timothy Verrill, 36, of Dover, a longtime acquaintance of Smoronk and the man accused in the deaths of the two women, is expected to begin his murder trial in May in Strafford County Superior Court.