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Bryan Vinales, age 25, of Waterbury, was sentenced on Thursday, Feb. 3, to 60 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, according to Leonard Boyle, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut.
He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl on July 23, Boyle said.
An investigation by the DEA New Haven Task Force and the Waterbury Police Department found that the Waterbury-based drug trafficking organization received large amounts of heroin and fentanyl from suppliers in New York and Connecticut and distributed them in New Haven County.
The organization was operated by Nestor Sosa-Ortiz, who was arrested on May 18, 2019, on a separate drug trafficking charge, but continued to control the organization while incarcerated, Boyle said.
Investigators found that Vinales worked with Jeffrey Tavarez to acquire the drugs and distribute them to customers, the US Attorney's Office reported.
The US Attorney's Office said Tavarez and other co-defendants were arrested on Oct. 29, 2019, the same day investigators executed five search warrants and seized the following:
- About six kilograms of heroin and fentanyl
- About 100,000 bags of heroin/fentanyl packaged for street distribution
- About 1,000 fentanyl pills disguised as Percocet pills
- One firearm
- About $50,000 in cash
Vinales continued distributing narcotics during this time, according to the report.
Investigators made controlled purchases of about 60 grams of fentanyl from Vinales in February 2020, and he was arrested on July 15, 2020, Boyle said.
Seventeen people were charged in the investigation, the report said.
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