News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2008

Meriden Man Sentenced for Role in Crack Ring

JAN 23 -- June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New England and Kevin J. O’Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that JOSUE MALDONADO, 34, of Griswold Street, Meriden, was sentenced yesterday, January 22, by Senior United States District Judge Peter C. Dorsey in New Haven to three years of probation for conspiring to distribute cocaine base (“crack cocaine”). Judge Dorsey also ordered MALDONADO to spend the first two months of his probation in a halfway house and the following three months in home confinement. MALDONADO also must pay a fine in the amount of $750. MALDONADO pleaded guilty to the charge on August 29, 2007.

On October 4, 2006, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging MALDONADO and several other individuals with various narcotics offenses involving the distribution of cocaine and crack cocaine in central Connecticut. The charges against MALDONADO stem largely from intercepted telephone conversations between MALDONADO and his stepson, Wilfredo Abrahante, regarding the distribution of crack cocaine to various customers at their former residence at 138 South Colony Street in Meriden. According to statements made in court, on several occasions when Abrahante was unavailable to service his crack cocaine customers, he directed MALDONADO to retrieve crack cocaine from Abrahante’s room and service customers on Abrahante’s behalf.

Wilfredo Abrahante was the target of a federal wiretap investigation in May 2006, and he and his twin brother, William, were charged in the Indictment with MALDONADO. The Abrahante brothers have pleaded guilty to federal narcotics distribution charges and await sentencing.

This investigation was a collaborative effort of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Meriden Police Department.