Juan Carlos Gonzalez-Rubio, Narcotics Trafficking, Connecticut 2023

John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JUAN CARLOS GONZALEZ-RUBIO, 41, a citizen of Mexico last residing in Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden to 48 months of imprisonment for trafficking narcotics into Connecticut.

Pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the court proceeding occurred via videoconference. Gonzalez-Rubio, already detained since his October 2019 arrest, faces deportation proceedings once he completes his sentence after having previously been removed from the U.S. and illegally re-entering.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in late 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Haven Task Force and New Haven Police Department launched an investigation into a network smuggling kilogram-quantities of heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine from Mexico and Arizona into the New Haven area. Investigators quickly zeroed in on Gonzalez-Rubio and an associate as key couriers moving product from the Southwest to Connecticut.

Between March and May 2019, law enforcement intercepted three packages shipped from Arizona to New Haven—two containing approximately one kilogram of cocaine, and one with roughly one kilogram of a lethal heroin-fentanyl mixture. The shipments moved via commercial carriers like UPS and FedEx, as well as through vehicles with hidden compartments transported on commercial car-haulers.

In August 2019, an undercover officer met with Gonzalez-Rubio in Arizona to arrange a narcotics shipment. He confirmed plans for a northeast run, offering to transport drugs using a used car on a car-hauler and charging $2,000 per kilogram. On October 1, 2019, the undercover handed over what Gonzalez-Rubio believed was five kilograms of fentanyl—actually a “mock load” designed to mimic real narcotics.

On October 13, 2019, the car-hauler arrived in Connecticut. Gonzalez-Rubio retrieved the vehicle and drove it to a stash location in East Haven—where he was arrested. On February 25, 2020, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine. The case was investigated by the DEA Task Force and New Haven Police, with support from DEA offices in Tucson and Phoenix and HSI in New Haven and Tucson. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jocelyn Courtney Kaoutzanis and Rahul Kale handled the prosecution.

Related Federal Cases