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Miguel Polanco, 31, even watched a how-to video on how to handle the shipment, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said following a plea hearing in Newark on Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Polanco became the focus of an investigation after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted the package from Mexico City on its way to his Union City apartment, Sellinger said.
He had previously received a video from a conspirator “explaining how to properly remove the bags of fentanyl concealed inside the package to minimize the damage to its contents,” the U.S. attorney said.
Polanco also “engaged in multiple conversations with conspirators where he learned of the quantity of fentanyl that would be sent to him as well as instruction on where to deliver the package after he received it,” Sellinger said.
“In exchange for receiving and transporting the package containing fentanyl, Polanco was to be paid,” he said.
Polanco accepted what he thought was the package during a controlled delivery. He was busted soon after that.
Rather than risk the potential outcome of a trial, he took a deal from the government, pleading guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Newark to conspiring to possess more than an ounce and a half of fentanyl with the intent to sell it.
In exchange, Polanco is looking at a minimum of five years in federal prison and a maximum of up to 40 years under U.S. sentencing guidelines.
Polanco will have to serve just about all of whatever sentence he gets because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Cox Arleo scheduled sentencing for June 28.
Sellinger credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations in both Newark and Laredo, Texas, U.S. Custom and Border Protection agents in both cities, inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark and Elizabeth police with the investigation leading to the plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas S. Kearney of his Special Prosecutions Unit in Newark.
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