Fentanyl Kingpin Jason Cox Sentenced to 10+ Years Behind Bars

Fentanyl Kingpin Jason Cox, 50, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Savannah, Georgia, has been sentenced to 125 months in federal prison for trafficking kilogram quantities of heroin and fentanyl.

U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden handed down the sentence in New Haven to Jason Cox, who has been detained since his arrest on February 11, 2020. Cox will also serve five years of supervised release after his prison term.

The investigation into Cox’s operation began in 2019, when the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bridgeport High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force launched an investigation into an organization distributing heroin, fentanyl, and crack cocaine in and around Bridgeport. Task Force members made four controlled purchases of heroin and fentanyl from Frank Best, a key player in the organization.

Further investigation revealed that Frank Best’s uncles, Wallace Best and Jeffrey Thomas, were supplying Best and others with narcotics. The investigation also uncovered that Jeffrey Thomas worked with Jason Cox to establish a connection to Mexican-sourced drug suppliers in California who could provide kilogram quantities of narcotics for distribution on the East Coast.

On December 2019, a cooperating source, working in conjunction with Wallace Best, Thomas, and Cox, traveled to a Home Depot parking lot in San Diego and purchased 1.1 kilograms of fentanyl, cut with Xylazine and Tramadol, in exchange for $27,000. The conspirators arranged to purchase five kilograms of heroin from their Mexican suppliers, but were arrested on February 10, 2020, after investigators seized a box containing approximately 4.9 kilograms of heroin.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karen L. Peck, Lauren C. Clark, and Katherine E. Boyles through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Program. The OCDETF Program identifies, disrupts and dismantles drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organizations through a prosecutor-led and intelligence-driven approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.