Home New Haven Press Releases 2009 Fairfield Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Role in Large Cocaine Trafficking Conspiracy
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Fairfield Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Role in Large Cocaine Trafficking Conspiracy

U.S. Attorney’s Office November 10, 2009
  • District of Connecticut (203) 821-3700

Nora R. Dannehy, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that RAYMOND PACHECO, also known as “Tito,” 39, of Fairfield, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to 120 months of imprisonment, followed by eight years of supervised release, for his role in an extensive cocaine trafficking conspiracy. On May 11, 2009, PACHECO pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.

This matter stems from a five-month investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force. According to court documents and the evidence disclosed during the trial of Antonio Miguel Arias, PACHECO was a trusted associate of Arias, a leader of a cocaine importation organization that was responsible for shipping hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Turbo, Colombia to Bridgeport, Connecticut. The cocaine was hidden in commercial shipments of bananas, which were transported, along with the cocaine, to various commercial fruit wholesalers in Connecticut and New York. The cocaine-laden packages were then transported to a fruit distribution company operated by Arias at 1313 Viele Avenue, the Bronx, where the cocaine was removed and then sold.

On August 7, 2007, agents seized 444 kilograms of cocaine that had been transported to Bridgeport aboard the Napier Star, a commercial transport ship operated by the Turbana fruit company. From the port at Bridgeport, the drugs were shipped within pallets of bananas to the Hunt’s Point Fruit Market in the Bronx, a complex of regional commercial fruit distributors. As the pallets were being removed from the market, FBI agents, acting on informant information, seized the load. Thereafter, a member of the conspiracy was recruited by the FBI in Connecticut to provide and gather information and evidence on the organization. The investigation culminated in the seizure of an additional 50 kilograms of cocaine at a commercial fruit warehouse in New Haven on December 4, 2007.

PACHECO has been detained since his arrest on December 5, 2007.

On June 26, 2009, a jury found Arias guilty of one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, and one count of attempting to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. On November 6, Judge Thompson sentenced Arias to a 30-year term of imprisonment and ordered him to pay a $1 million fine.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force, with the assistance of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

U.S. Attorney Dannehy praised the cooperative effort of the FBI in both Connecticut and the Southern District of New York, and specifically noted the assistance of the New Haven Police Department and Officer Michael Mastropetre, who led the investigation.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney H. Gordon Hall of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force.

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