Federal Inmate Who Trafficked Cocaine While Incarcerated Sentenced to 5 More Years

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that REINALDO COLON OLIVERAS, also known as “Chucho,” 38, formerly of Kissimmee, Florida, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven to 78 months of imprisonment, followed by eight years of supervised release for arranging cocaine shipments to Connecticut while incarcerated in federal custody.

According to court documents and statements made in court, this matter stems from an investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bridgeport High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force of a drug trafficking network led by Landdy Rodriguez of Waterbury.  In the summer of 2021, investigators intercepted phone calls during which Colon, while incarcerated in a federal prison in Atlanta and using a smuggled cell phone, arranged the shipment of cocaine to both Rodriguez and Thomas Marra of Ansonia.  Rodriguez and Marra further distributed the drug to a networks of associates.

In 2015, Colon was sentenced in the District of Puerto Rico to 168 months of imprisonment for narcotics conspiracy, firearm possession and money laundering offenses related to his role as an enforcer for a drug trafficking organization that operated in Puerto Rico and Florida.  Judge Hall ordered 60 months of the 78-month sentence to run consecutively to Colon’s prior sentence, which was scheduled to conclude in 2027.

On November 2, 2021, a grand jury in New Haven returned an indictment charging Colon, Rodriguez, Marra and others with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.  Colon pleaded guilty to the charge on December 1, 2022.

Rodriguez and Marra have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

This investigation has been conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bridgeport High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Connecticut State Police and the Waterbury Police Department.  The Task Force includes personnel from the DEA Bridgeport Resident Office, the Connecticut State Police, and the Bridgeport, Danbury, Milford, Norwalk, Stamford and Stratford Police Departments.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kenneth L. Gresham, John T. Pierpont, Jr., and Brendan J. Keefe through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Program.  OCDETF identifies, disrupts and dismantles drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organizations through a prosecutor-led and intelligence-driven approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.  Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.