“D-Nice,” a Pennsylvania guy, was given a seven-year jail sentence in Bridgeport on Thursday for smuggling cocaine and heroin into Connecticut.
According to a statement from the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Israel Mendoza, 45, a former resident of Reading, Pennsylvania, will serve three years of supervised release after serving his jail term.
According to statements and court documents, the Narcotics and Bulk Cash Trafficking Task Force of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began looking into a drug dealing operation in the Hartford area in 2018 that used the postal service to transport drug packages and drug proceeds from coast to coast.
Investigators discovered that Mendoza provided Michael Copeland, a resident of Bloomfield, with substantial quantities of cocaine. Copeland then sent cash-filled packages to California at Mendoza’s request.
According to the prosecution, two packages containing approximately $13,000 in cash were intercepted by U.S. Postal Inspectors in California in September and October of 2018. Copeland had mailed them to locations in Fresno from Connecticut.
After that, investigators looked through postal records and found further packages linked to the drug trafficking organization.
According to reports, dozens of packages were found and thought to contain drugs or money.
Investigators claim to have intercepted a package containing about 500 grams of cocaine that was delivered from California to a Bloomfield home linked to Copeland in February of the following year.
According to the prosecution, Mendoza distributed heroin and cocaine in and around Hartford with the help of colleagues including Neliobet DeJesus and Danny Rhodes.
Investigators discovered a package that was headed for an Orlando home connected to DeJesus after he relocated to Florida.
Five grams of fentanyl and almost 500 grams of cocaine were found in the package during a court-authorized search.
On October 31, 2019, a Hartford grand jury returned an indictment accusing Mendoza, Copeland, DeJesus, and Rhodes of drug trafficking charges.
Before being taken into custody in California on August 14, 2023, Mendoza was a wanted criminal.
Mendoza entered a guilty plea on October 1, 2024, to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin. Since his arrest, he has been in custody.
Prosecutors claim that Copeland, DeJesus, and Rhodes had previously entered guilty pleas. Rhodes received a sentence of seven years and three months in prison on December 8, 2021.
On December 16, 2021, Copeland received a sentence of two years and six months in jail, and on March 7, 2022, DeJesus received a term of the same length.
Members of the Connecticut Army National Guard, the Hartford, New Britain, Meriden, and Groton police departments, as well as the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General, comprised the Narcotics and Bulk Cash Trafficking Task Force of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which looked into the case.
Additionally, the Hartford Police Department, Connecticut State Police, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Hartford Task Force provided assistance.
This information has been sourced from fox61.
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