Marcos Mendez, age 31, of Florida, was sentenced on Monday, Oct. 18, to 72 months in prison and four years of supervised release for trafficking cocaine through the mail from Puerto Rico to Connecticut and Massachusetts, according to Leonard Boyle, acting United States attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Between July and December 2018, authorities seized five parcels that were mailed to addresses in Bristol, Meriden and Burlington, Connecticut, and in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Boyle said all of the parcels contained a number of kilogram-sized bricks of cocaine.
Investigators also saw Mendez, while he was a resident of Bristol, and other individuals picking up or attempting to pick up parcels that were seized, Boyle said.
Mendez and other members of the drug trafficking organization were arrested on Jan. 9, 2019.
More than a kilogram of cocaine, bags of marijuana packaged for distribution and $146,712 in cash were found during a search of Mendez's residence in Bristol, Boyle reported.
Mendez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine on May 18, the US Attorney's Office said.
He is required to report to prison on Jan. 3, 2022.
Boyle said the case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Hartford Task Force and the US Postal Inspection Service
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