News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2008

Waterbury Man Sentenced To Five Years In Federal Prison For Dealing Cocaine

MAY 23 -- June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New England and Nora R. Dannehy, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that OMAR MONTES, 31, of Waterbury, was sentenced yesterday, May 22, by United States District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 60 months of imprisonment, followed by seven years of supervised release, for conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute, and to distribute, cocaine. MONTES pleaded guilty to the charge on November 13, 2007.

On May 22, 2007, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging MONTES and several other individuals with various narcotics offenses involving the distribution of cocaine and crack cocaine in central Connecticut. During the course of the investigation underlying the Indictment, it was learned that MONTES was a street-level cocaine dealer in Waterbury who was supplied with cocaine by Eluid Rivera, also known as “Smokey,” of Waterbury.

On March 29, 2007, Rivera pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. On January 23, 2008, he was sentenced by United States District Judge Mark R. Kravitz in New Haven to 135 months of imprisonment.

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