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Philly resident Jose Gonzalez, 51, and his co-conspirators flew to San Juan on dozens of commercial flights from Philadelphia International Airport, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Phillip Sellinger said.
They paid cash there for multi-kilo quantities of coke, then used overnight delivery from U.S. Post Office branches in San Juan to ship it to various addresses in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, the U.S. attorney said.
The drugs ordinarily were shipped in three-pound bundles, he said.
Once they were delivered, a conspirator resold the drugs to Philly-area dealers for a profit, Sellinger said.
Agents seized $120,000 in cash from Gonzalez's home and a 9mm handgun from a Philadelphia auto garage that he operated when they arrested him, the U.S. attorney said.
Rather than risk the possible consequences of a conviction at trial, three of those charged took deals from the government.
Gonzalez, for his part, admitted in U.S. District Court in Camden last year that he and others at one point possessed more than 220 pounds of cocaine possessed for sale.
Gonzalez must serve at least 85% of the entire term because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn sentenced Gonzalez on Tuesday, May 14 to five years of supervised release and ordered forfeiture of the gun, the cash and a Dodge Ram 3500 pickup.
Sellinger credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Philadelphia Division, agents of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General's Northeast Area Field Office, agents assigned to the FBI’s Atlantic City Resident Agency's Newark and Philadelphia field divisions and both Philadelphia and New Jersey State Police with the investigation leading to the pleas and sentences secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick C. Askin of his Criminal Division in Camden.
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