United States Drug Enforcement Administration

NEWARK, N.J. – Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division Susan A. Gibson and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger announced a Puerto Rican man was sentenced today to 120 months in prison for conspiring to distribute over 250 kilograms of cocaine.

Mariano Enrique Arroyo Perez, aka “Humilde,” 29, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to a superseding indictment charging him with conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.

From 2017 through July 2019, Arroyo Perez and his conspirators conspired to distribute approximately 250 kilograms of cocaine. The conspirators sought to bring cocaine into the United States using private planes. Specifically, Arroyo Perez coordinated the use of a private plane to transport approximately 150 kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico to New Jersey on Nov. 18, 2018. Law enforcement officers intercepted that shipment after the pilots became suspicious about four passengers who were not on the flight manifest and had particularly heavy luggage. The luggage contained cocaine, and the passengers were arrested.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Salas sentenced Arroyo Perez to five years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents and task force officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration in New Jersey, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Susan A. Gibson in Newark, as well as special agents and task force officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. He also thanked the U.S. Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Marshals Service for their assistance with the case.

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