Suspect in Eve Tarmey OD death worked for DEA

Mark Ross (Rochester Police photo)

CONCORD, N.H. - The Rochester man police say gave 17-year-old Eve Tarmey fentanyl to snort the night she died of an overdose worked as a confidential informant for the DEA, court records indicate.

Mark Ross, 41, of 479 Gonic Road, The Riviera Motel, Room 117, did work for the federal agency from March 7, 2014, to Oct. 21, 2015. Tarmey died the morning of Oct. 17.

The information was gleaned from records at the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire in Concord.
The information only came to light because Ross appeared to be working as a confidential informant in the arrest of a Rochester man originally from Mexico who is claiming entrapment in his own drug case.

Lorenzo Ramirez, 58, is charged with selling heroin to an undercover member of the DEA Task Force.
According to court records in the Ramirez case, Ross introduced Ramirez to Officer Steve Hamel on Feb. 11 during a recorded meeting inside Hamel's vehicle, which was parked at the Rochester Staples.

Eve Tarmey

During the conversation Ross tells Ramirez he was starting a new job, and Ramirez would have to be Hamel's supplier.
Hamel then tells Ramirez he wants to buy heroin and gets it from Hamel.

A week later Hamel contacts Ramirez for more and another exchange is made in the Staples parking lot.

Then on March 4 during a third buy, Ramirez was arrested by Hamel.
Jonathan Saxe, a federal defender for Ramirez, claims it's entrapment, because he claims Ross was allegedly selling the heroin to his client while pocketing DEA money.
Saxe pushed for the DEA to release the last name of Ross and payment records, which a judge granted.

Ramirez' trial is not until next year.

Ross, who collected $2,000 from the DEA during their 17-month association, is charged with felony conspiracy to commit possession of a controlled drug, felony tampering with witnesses and informants and dispensing controlled drug, death resulting, in Tarmey's death.

Court affidavits from the Tarmey OD case indicate that Ross, Tarmey's mother, Jazzmyn Rood and another woman, Leslie Aberle of Salisbury, Mass., were all high on heroin inside Ross' motel room when Ross gave some of the drug to Tarmey to calm her down after she became distraught over not meeting up with her boyfriend earlier in the day.

Tarmey snorted the fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 30 times more powerful than heroin and died a few hours later. Ross said in a court affidavit he thought the drug they had bought earlier in the day was heroin.

On Wednesday at Strafford County Superior Court, Rood's bail was reduced to personal recognizance as soon as she is cleared for release from jail by Strafford County Community Corrections.

Meanwhile, Ross and Aberle remain held on high cash bail.

Aberle is also charged with felony conspiracy to commit possession of a controlled drug, felony tampering with witnesses and informants and dispensing controlled drug, death resulting, in Tarmey's death.