A Boston man and known H-Block gang member, Dominique Carpenter-Grady, has been sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to smuggle illegal drugs into a Massachusetts prison. The 36-year-old, also known as "8 Zipp," "Eight," and "Eighty," received his sentence on June 15, 2026, from U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani.
Carpenter-Grady's sentence includes three years of supervised release following his prison term. In February 2026, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute PCP and synthetic cannabinoids, commonly known as K2. He was among 10 H-Block gang members and associates charged in August 2024 after a multi-year investigation into the violent Boston-based gang, which also seized over 500 grams of cocaine, crack cocaine, and fentanyl, alongside more than 20,000 doses of drug-laced paper.
The investigation revealed Carpenter-Grady facilitated intercepted calls to coordinate the smuggling of drugs on saturated papers into the prison system. This method involved soaking paper in liquid narcotics, drying it, and then printing fake legal correspondence on it before mailing it to inmates, exploiting Department of Correction mail policies. A single sheet of such drug-laced paper is estimated to be worth as much as $80,000 inside a prison. The Massachusetts Department of Correction has reported a significant increase in the smuggling of K2 and other dangerous substances.
Carpenter-Grady is the seventh defendant to be sentenced in this case, which is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative. The HSTF is a government partnership focused on eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations, emphasizing the prosecution of crimes committed by these groups.