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Hartford County resident Luis Ciuro, age 37, of East Hartford, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars Wednesday, Aug. 10, in federal court in Bridgeport.
It follows his November 2020 guilty plea to one count of possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl.
Federal prosecutors said Ciuro was busted in October 2019, when Manchester Police were called about a woman yelling and displaying a gun outside of an apartment building on John Olds Drive in Manchester.
Police had previously been tipped off that an individual was operating a fentanyl mill in an apartment in the same building, prosecutors said.
While surveilling the building, police observed Ciuro place a black bag into the trunk of a car before driving off with another individual.
When officers stopped the vehicle, they found a shoebox inside the bag that contained approximately $70,000 in cash, prosecutors said. Inside a second shoebox were two loaded guns, both of them reported stolen.
Ciuro later admitted to storing and processing narcotics at the apartment on John Olds Drive.
That’s where investigators found roughly 687 grams of the powerful opioid, fentanyl, along with PCP, psilocybin mushrooms, and materials for packaging drugs, prosecutors said.
In addition to his prison term, Ciuro must also complete 10 years of post-release supervision.
His penalties were enhanced due to a prior criminal history, which includes a federal conviction for selling crack cocaine.
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