An Oak Bluffs man was sentenced to two years in state prison after pleading guilty last week to trafficking in fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid that is the latest scourge in the addiction epidemic.

John P. Hathaway Jr., 49, pleaded guilty Thursday in Dukes County superior court to charges of trafficking in fentanyl, more than 10 grams, possessing a class B drug (Buprenorphine), and possessing a class E substance (codeine and acetaminophen).

The Hon. Gary Nickerson sentenced him to not more than two years and one day and not less than two years at MCI-Cedar Junction, a maximum security prison in Walpole.

The defendant will be placed on probation for three years following his sentence. He will not be prosecuted on a fourth charge, possessing to distribute a class B drug (fentanyl).

He was indicted by a Superior Court grand jury on Oct. 2. He was arrested in March after police searched a home on County Road in Oak Bluffs.

Fentanyl is a powerful painkiller, more powerful than heroin and up to 100 times more powerful than morphine. Police and public safety officials say increased use of the drug on the Island and around New England is a leading cause of the rise in drug overdoses.