Meriden Man Sentenced to More Than 4 Years in Federal Prison for Trafficking Cocaine Through the Mail
MERIDEN, Conn. - Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JEAN CARLOS MERCADO, 34, of Meriden, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to 50 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for his participation in a drug trafficking organization that used the U.S. Mail to ship kilogram quantities of cocaine from Puerto Rico to Connecticut.
According to court documents and statements made in court, in October 2020, law enforcement identified suspicious parcels that were being mailed from Puerto Rico to an address in Meriden. On October 26, 2020, investigators identified Mercado after he picked up a parcel from that location. After Mercado picked up another parcel from the location on November 6, 2020, investigators coordinated a traffic stop of his vehicle, which was unregistered, and towed the vehicle and seized the parcel. A court-authorized search of the parcel revealed two kilograms of cocaine. In the following months, Mercado conspired with others to pick up postal parcels, and law enforcement seized four more kilograms of cocaine linked to Mercado.
Mercado was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on July 21, 2021. On July 26, 2022, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.
At the conclusion today’s court proceeding, Mercado, who was released on bond, was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service to begin serving his sentence.
This matter was investigated by Drug Enforcement Administration New Haven Task Force and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, with assistance from the Meriden Police Department. The DEA New Haven Task Force includes personnel from the DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, Connecticut State Police and the New Haven, Waterbury, East Haven, Branford, West Haven, Ansonia, Meriden, Naugatuck, and Shelton Police Departments.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Konstantin Lantsman through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Program. OCDETF identifies, disrupts and dismantles drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organizations through a prosecutor-led and intelligence-driven approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
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