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Lester Santana, 53, of Egg Harbor Township, 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 for multi-kilo quantities, then used overnight delivery from U.S. Post Office branches in San Juan to various addresses in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey -- ordinarily in three-pound bundles -- the U.S.attorney said.
One of the destinations for the mailed cocaine was Santana's own house, he said.
After the cocaine shipments were delivered, a conspirator resold the drugs to Philly-area dealers for a profit, Sellinger said.
Rather than risk a possible conviction at trial, Santana took a deal from the government.
He admitted in U.S. District Court in Camden earlier this year that he was responsible with others for possessing up to 330 pounds of cocaine for sale.
Santana must serve the entire term because there's no parole in the federal prison system. U.S. District Court Judge Christine P. O’Hearn also sentenced him to five years of supervised release.
Santana is the third person to plead guilty in the case, joining Philadelphia residents Jose Gonzalez and Iran Soler, who each admitted having at least five kilos or more of coke. Both have yet to be sentenced.
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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