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Confidential informants, drug dog, bad address helped feds get their man

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Dean Smoronk (Virginia State Police photo)

CONCORD - The Farmington man and reputed midlevel drug dealer whose home was the site of a grisly double homicide in 2017 is facing at least five years in federal prison for trafficking methamphetamines, according to sentencing guidelines released on Wednesday by the District of New Hampshire U.S. Attorneys Office.

Dean Smoronk, 57, formerly of 979 Meaderboro Road, who was named in a January indictment, formally pleaded guilty on Sept. 3 to trafficking in five grams or more of meth, or "ice" in July 2018. His sentencing, where he could face up to 40 years, is set for Dec. 17 in federal court in Concord.

According to the formal plea agreement obtained by The Rochester Voice, DEA officials and New Hampshire State Police learned in June 2018 of Smoronk's involvement in the drug deal through a confidential informant who said Smoronk planned to have a supply of meth shipped from a source in California to an address in Lebanon, Maine.

A second confidential informant told the DEA on July 10 that the California shipment was en route. United States Postal Service officials were contacted and intercepted the package, which had a return address name of SNYDER in Antioch, Calif., the plea agreement states.

Investigators learned that while the address was valid, no one named "SNYDER" had ever lived there.

Soon after, the second confidential informant advised DEA officials that Smoronk had given the incorrect Lebanon address, causing the package of meth to be rerouted to Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, DEA agents set up surveillance at the undisclosed Lebanon residence, a mobile home.

According to the plea deal document, the USPS seized the package on July 11, 2018, and a search warrant for it was granted after a New Hampshire State Police K9 unit alerted officials to the presence of drugs.

Inside agents found 67.8 grams of "ice" or meth.

Later the same day, DEA agents observed Smoronk at the Lebanon address, and noted he was bent over in the back of the trailer as if inspecting the skirting. According to the document, Smoronk remained there "all day" before returning to his New Hampshire residence.

The plea agreement also states that Smoronk and his California "source" had frequent telephone contact between June 16 and July 10, of 2018, with the defendant texting the source on July 10: "1 WANTED TO SHARE SOMETHING WITH YOU THAT 1 FOUND OUT ABOUT THAT SCHOOL HOUSE WE TALKED ABOUT. 1 DONT KNOW IF YOU CAN MAKE A CALL. BUT EITHER WAY I'M AVAILABLE HERE WHENEVER YOU WOULD LIKE TO CALL."

A few hours later, the plea deal states, there was a three minute or so phone call between Smoronk and the California source followed shortly after by a brief text from the source that read: "UNABLE TO DELIVER YESTERDAY DUE TO PROBLEM WITH ADDRESS. WAITING FOR CALL BACK. WILL LET YOU KNOW."
A minute later, the defendant sent a reply, according to the plea agreement, that read: ""DON'T EVER TEXT ME AGAIN. YOU HAVE THE WRONG PERSON!"

Smoronk was taken into custody in December on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm as part of a Strafford County drug sweep. He was accused of trying to sell a Sig Sauer P-320 9 mm originally stolen out of Milton.

Prosecutors in the case, however, never sought an indictment on the gun charge, instead charging Smoronk in the meth trafficking case.

Smoronk's trial was originally to have been held in June, but had been postponed several times.

Smoronk's 979 Meaderboro Road home was the site of the double stabbing deaths of Smoronk's longtime girlfriend, Christine Sullivan, 48; and an acquaintance of hers, Jenna Pellegrini, 32, of Barrington, who were both killed early the morning of Jan. 27, 2017, police say.

Autopsies revealed Sullivan had a fractured skull and was stabbed in the neck and lungs, while Pellegrini had been stabbed in the neck, torso and back 43 times.

Smoronk discovered the bodies upon his return from Florida on Jan. 28, 2017. He has never been implicated in the killings, however he does have a record of drug involvement, including the 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 around June of last year after his release from a Virginia jail.

Smoronk's alleged involvement in the drug trafficking subculture surfaced during a bail hearing for the women's alleged killer in September 2017 when a New Hampshire Police detective noted the extent of Smoronk's drug interest and alleged ties to drug cartels, gangs, motorcycle clubs and a host of dealers and users both in Farmington and Florida where he owned a home in Cape Coral.

In April 2017 the state of New Hampshire declared Smoronk a known drug dealer as part of its effort to seize more than $14,000 in cash from Smoronk's Farmington home. That petition was tossed out of court because the state was somehow unable to get the forfeiture petition to Strafford County Superior Court on time.

Meanwhile, Timothy Verrill, 36, of Dover, the man accused in the deaths of Sullivan and Pellegrini and said to be a longtime friend of Smoronk's, is expected to have his murder trial in October at Strafford County Superior Court.

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