Jorge Taveras-DeJesus, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, who formerly lived in Lawrence, Massachusetts, has been sentenced to 46 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for distributing heroin and for illegally reentering the country after he was deported.
The arrest of the 36-year-old Taveras-DeJesus came following a DEA Hartford Task Force investigation into a heroin trafficking organization operating in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and the Dominican Republic.
Court-authorized wiretaps and police surveillance found that Taveras-DeJesus regularly traveled to Connecticut to supply distribution of heroin to dealers in Hartford. The heroin was being distributed out of Katty Grocery on Franklin Avenue in Hartford. Ten people have been charged with drug and immigration offenses as part of the DEA investigation.
On Feb. 24 last year, Taveras-DeJesus was arrested in Hartford while in possession of 82 grams of heroin and fentanyl. A fingerprint analysis following his arrest found that he had been deported in 2006 for selling drugs, and again after a federal conviction for illegal reentry.
Taveras-DeJesus pleaded guilty on May 23 to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute heroin and one count of reentry of a reentry of a removed alien. He’s been detained since his arrest.
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