Dominican national who was part of CT drug trafficking ring gets almost 3 years in federal prison

A 29-year-old man from the Dominican Republic was sentenced to almost three years in federal prison on Wednesday for his role in a Waterbury-based drug trafficking ring, federal officials said.

Jeffrey Amarante-Perez was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant in Hartford to a total of 30 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for trafficking fentanyl and heroin, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl on Nov. 15, 2022.

According to a joint investigation between the DEA New Haven Task Force and  Waterbury Police Department, a Waterbury-based drug trafficking operation headed by Nestor Sosa-Ortiz received large quantities of fentanyl and heroin from suppliers in Connecticut and New York and distributed the drugs through a network of dealers that included Sanchez-Martinez.

Sosa-Ortiz was arrested in New York City on a separate federal charge for heroin and fentanyl trafficking in May 2019 but continued to run the drug operation from prison using smuggled cell phones, court records said.

The operation used an apartment on Bishop Street in Waterbury to store large amounts of fentanyl and heroin and to prepare the drugs for sale, according to court records. Investigators executed search warrants at the Bishop Street apartment and four other locations on Oct. 29, 2019, and seized approximately six kilograms of fentanyl and heroin,100,000 bags of fentanyl/heroin,1,000 fentanyl pills that were disguised as Percocet pills, one firearm, $50,000 in cash, drug ledgers and other items, court records said.

Several members of the drug ring were arrested, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Officials learned that Jeffrey Amarante-Perez and his brother, Jeisson Amarante-Perez, provided an alternate source of drug supply for the Sosa-Ortiz operation. Jeisson Amarante-Perez and Edwin Rivas-Cruz, a drug courier for the brothers, were recorded as they organized the drug transactions, court records said. Drug ledgers seized during the October raid showed drug debts to Jeffrey Amarante-Perez of more than $30,000.

Jeisson Amarante-Perez, Rivas-Cruz, and Sosa-Ortiz have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

Jeffrey Amarante-Perez has been detained since his arrest on July 1, 2022.