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Miguel Polanco, 31, must serve out just about all of the 23-month plea-bargained sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
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, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger previously said.
Polanco had watched a how-to video sent to him by a conspirator on how to handle the shipment, the U.S. attorney said.
He 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 instead.
Rather than risk the potential outcome of a trial, Polanco took a deal from the government, pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Newark in February to conspiring to possess more than an ounce and a half of fentanyl with the intent to sell it.
U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Cox Arleo approved the deal and sentenced Polanco on Aug. 24 to the prison time plus four years of supervised release.
Sellinger credited the conviction to special agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations in both Newark and Laredo, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in both cities, inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark and Elizabeth police.
The plea was secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas S. Kearney of his Special Prosecutions Unit in Newark, he said.
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