Hartford Cocaine Kingpin Todd Vernon Caged for 5 Years

Todd Vernon, 42, of Hartford, is going down for five years behind federal bars after being sentenced to 60 months for trafficking multi-kilo shipments of cocaine across state lines. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer handed down the sentence in New Haven, adding five years of supervised release and a $50,000 fine. Vernon, a Canadian national, will face deportation upon release.

The case exposes a sprawling drug pipeline run by Raul Chavez, who orchestrated the smuggling of cocaine from Mexico into El Paso, Texas, before shipping it north to Connecticut. Court records show Vernon had been a steady buyer since 2004, receiving shipments of 30 to 40 kilograms at a time. He and Tyshawn Welborn, of Bloomfield, distributed the poison through a network of street-level dealers, flooding Hartford neighborhoods with narcotics.

In July 2014, the operation reached a turning point when Andrew Duron, aka “Chavo,” met a DEA confidential source in North Carolina. Duron sought up to 50 kilos at $28,000 per kilo. By August 14, he struck a deal with an undercover agent in New Jersey for 25 kilos at $725,000 — including a $1,000-per-kilo side profit. The load was destined for both Vernon and Welborn, with Vernon prepaying for approximately 13 kilos.

The bust went down on August 23, 2014, in a Wethersfield store parking lot. Duron and the undercover agent drove separately to Kennedy Road in Windsor, where Raul Chavez and associates waited. A third man arrived in a Jeep Wrangler, flashed a duffel bag, and said it held “half” the cash. Minutes later, federal agents swarmed the scene, arresting Duron, Chavez, and crew. Inside the Jeep: $284,000 — money pulled earlier that day from Welborn — and a loaded .38 caliber revolver.

When news broke of the arrests, Raul Chavez’s son, Christopher Chavez, rerouted a 34-kilogram shipment en route to Connecticut, diverting it to a high-level dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. The operation unraveled further as authorities closed in. Vernon was arrested August 26, 2015, and on September 7, 2016, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.

The fallout was widespread. Andrew Duron of El Paso was sentenced to 84 months on September 22, 2015. Christopher Chavez got 60 months on October 7, 2016. Tyshawn Welborn, also known as “Black,” received 84 months and a $200,000 fine on December 21, 2016. Raul Chavez was hit with 144 months and a $250,000 fine on January 11, 2017. The DEA’s Hartford Task Force led the investigation, dismantling a cartel-connected pipeline that poisoned New England streets for over a decade.