Hector Soto Gonzalez, Fentanyl Trafficking, Massachusetts 2025

BOSTON, Massachusetts

A Connecticut man was sentenced today in federal court in Worcester for his role in a fentanyl trafficking conspiracy.

Hector Soto Gonzalez, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman to 10 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. In January 2025, Soto Gonzalez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl and one count of distribution of and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.

Beginning at least as early as June 2023, while Soto Gonzalez was on federal supervised release after serving a 10-year sentence for a narcotics conviction in the District of Puerto Rico, Soto Gonzalez became a source of supply for fentanyl for co-defendant Jose Mercado Aponte. Mercado Aponte travelled from Massachusetts to the area of Soto Gonzalez’s residence in Hartford, Conn., on multiple occasions to pick up drugs that Mercado Aponte then provided to a cooperating witness (CW).

On Nov. 13, 2023, Mercado Aponte arranged to sell a kilogram of fentanyl to the CW. On that date, Mercado Aponte communicated with the CW to coordinate the deal and then made three calls to Soto Gonzalez. Later that afternoon, law enforcement conducting surveillance of the residence observed Soto Gonzalez leave his residence and put something in his trunk. Soto Gonzalez subsequently departed his residence in his truck and travelled from Connecticut to Massachusetts where a traffic stop was conducted and approximately one kilogram of fentanyl was located inside the vehicle.

Soto Gonzalez was released from federal custody in May 2022 after being sentenced and serving 10 years in prison. His current sentence will be served consecutively to the time he has already served, bringing the total to 20 years of incarceration.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation New Haven Division, Norfolk County Sheriff’s Office and the Watertown, Reading, Peabody, Hudson, Concord, Waltham, Fitchburg, Leominster and Hartford, Conn. Police Departments, with valuable assistance from the Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts Department of Correction. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Mackenzie Duane of the Narcotics & Money Laundering Unit is prosecuting the case.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; James Crowley, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; Colonel Geoffrey Noble of the Massachusetts State Police; and Commissioner Shawn Jenkins of the Massachusetts Department of Correction made the announcement today.

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