Roberto Muniz, 37, of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, was sentenced today via videoconference to 30 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for trafficking kilos of cocaine from Puerto Rico to Connecticut through the U.S. Mail. The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden, marks the latest conviction in a sprawling drug network that exploited the postal system to funnel narcotics into New England.
According to court records and statements made during proceedings, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Hartford Task Force and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service uncovered a coordinated operation that shipped USPS parcels packed with kilogram bricks of cocaine between July and December 2018. Five of those parcels—destined for addresses in Bristol, Meriden, and Burlington, Connecticut, and Worcester, Massachusetts—were intercepted and seized. Each package contained multiple kilos of high-grade cocaine, stashed in deceptive packaging meant to evade detection.
Surveillance footage from delivery attempts revealed a pattern: suspects arriving to collect parcels shortly after they hit local mail routes. Investigators observed Miguel Freytes, Marcos Mendez, Omar Mendez, and others attempting to retrieve packages that had already been seized by law enforcement. These pickups, often conducted under false names or with forged IDs, helped trace the network back to its source—Roberto Muniz in Puerto Rico.
On January 9, 2019, the net tightened. Raids across Connecticut led to the arrest of multiple suspects and the seizure of approximately 2.5 kilograms of cocaine, narcotics processing equipment, and more than $150,000 in cash. Muniz was taken into custody days later on January 15, 2019, in Guaynabo. The coordinated takedown was the result of intelligence shared between federal and local agencies working under the DEA’s Hartford Task Force.
A federal grand jury returned a multi-count indictment on January 23, 2019, charging Muniz, Freytes, Marcos Mendez, Omar Mendez, and two others with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and related narcotics offenses. All key figures, including Muniz who pleaded guilty on July 20, 2020, have now admitted their roles in the scheme. Freytes, Marcos Mendez, and Omar Mendez—each of Bristol—also entered guilty pleas.
The investigation was led by the DEA’s Hartford Task Force, which includes agents from the Connecticut State Police and multiple municipal departments including Bristol, Hartford, East Hartford, Enfield, Manchester, New Britain, Rocky Hill, Wethersfield, Windsor Locks, and Willimantic. Critical support came from the DEA Puerto Rico Caribbean Corridor Strike Force and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Newark Division and San Juan Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey M. Stone is prosecuting the case through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Program, a federal initiative targeting high-level drug networks through intelligence-driven prosecution.
RELATED: Puerto Rico Man Smuggled Cocaine to CT via U.S. Mail
Related Federal Cases
- Puerto Rico Man Smuggled Cocaine to CT via U.S. Mail · Massachusetts
- Dartmouth Woman and Weymouth Man Indicted in Cocaine Trafficking Ring · Massachusetts
- Michael Rivera Gets 3 Years for Cocaine Trafficking Ring · Puerto Rico
- Lopez, Santiago, Diaz Plead Guilty to Mass. Drug Ring · Massachusetts
- Jorge Carrasquillo-Ortiz Pleads Guilty in UPS Cocaine Scheme · Massachusetts
Key Facts
- State: Connecticut
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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