CT man indicted for trafficking cocaine between U.S. and Puerto Rico
A Bloomfield man has been indicted after federal officials say he headed up a narcotics operation that trafficked cocaine from Puerto Rico to Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Joseph Giovanni Soto, 32, was arrested Monday after a federal grand jury in New Haven last week returned an indictment charging him with drug and firearm charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.
According to federal officials, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Narcotics and Bulk Cash Trafficking Task Force in April 2021 began investigating a cocaine trafficking operation allegedly headed by Soto.
Authorities found that he was coordinating the shipment of parcels containing “kilogram quantities” of cocaine from post offices in Puerto Rico to various “drop addresses” in New Britain and Meriden, as well as addresses in Holyoke and West Springfield, Massachusetts, according to federal officials.
Soto and others allegedly involved picked up parcels from the drop addresses and delivered them to “stash houses” in Bloomfield and New Britain, officials said.
Federal authorities said they intercepted and seized more than five kilograms of cocaine and have identified numerous other suspicious parcels that “likely contained kilogram quantities of cocaine.”
During a search of Soto’s residence on May 1, authorities said they seized two firearms, a drum magazine, various ammunition, about two kilograms of cocaine and approximately $12,000. Soto was arrested on state charges following the search.
Federal authorities said Soto’s criminal history includes a felony conviction for assault, noting that it’s a violation of federal law for a “person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce.”
The indictment returned last week charges Soto – who is free on $100,000 bond pending trial – with one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
The charges combined carry a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life imprisonment.