Taunton man sentenced after dumping narcotics during police pursuit

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) — A Taunton man was sentenced on Oct. 14 after he dumped narcotics during a police pursuit in 2023, according to Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn, III.

51-year-old Leonard Vargus was sentenced to eight to ten years in State Prison, to begin after his current sentence of three to for years for a separate case.

On Oct. 14, Vargus pled guilty and was sentenced for possession with intent to distribute various substances: fentanyl, flurofentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous weapon, leaving the scene of property damage, and reckless operation of a motor vehicle.

On April 23, 2023, Vargus was driving on Route 138 in Raynham when a Massachusetts State trooper stopped his vehicle for a license plate violation.

During the motor vehicle stop, the trooper told a female passenger to exit the vehicle after she made a “furtive moment towards the center console,” according to Quinn.

As the trooper directed the woman towards the police cruiser, Quinn said Vargus fled the scene in the vehicle at a “high rate of speed.”

Vargus then drove over 90 miles per hour on the highway and traveled down the center line of the road, “forcing other motorists off the road to avoid a collision,” according to Quinn.

As the defendant approached Route 495, he threw several plastic bags out of the vehicle and emptied bags of drugs from the sunroof, which hit the trooper’s cruiser.

When Vargus entered Route 24, he struck a vehicle “while illegally passing vehicles” and continued to throw out bags.

While traveling on Route 24, Vargus “drove directly at another trooper” who had deployed a strike strip, which stopped his vehicle after several miles.

When the initial trooper began to approach Vargus’s vehicle, he collapsed.

The trooper was revived with doses of Narcan and taken to the hospital, where he recovered.

Multiple plastic bags were recovered and tested positive for fentanyl, flurofentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine.

According to Quinn, Vargus has a “lengthy record of assaultive and narcotics offenses,” and was out on bail in connection to a narcotics case at the time of the pursuit.

In the separate narcotics case, he was sentenced in 2024 to three to four years in prison.