A Bristol man was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for smuggling kilogram quantities of cocaine from Puerto Rico into Connecticut and western Massachusetts through the U.S. Postal Service.
Federal authorities said Jorge Freytes, 37, was part of a six-person drug trafficking organization that arranged to mail packages of up to four kilograms to a variety of addresses in western New England, and then packaging them for sale.
Prosecutors said the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Hartford Task Force and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service learned of the Freytes organization after receiving information that kilograms of cocaine were being delivered by mail from phony addresses in various parts of Puerto Rico.
Between July and December 2018, the investigators intercepted and seized five packages mailed to addresses in Bristol, Meriden and Burlington and and in Worcester. All contained multiple, kilogram-sized bricks of cocaine. During surveillance, investigators watched Freytes and others picking up or attempting to pick up parcels that had been seized. The investigation revealed that the cocaine was being sent from Puerto Rico by another member of the conspiracy
On Jan. 9, 2019, investigators arrested Freytes and other members of this drug trafficking organization and seized approximately 2.5 kilograms of cocaine, items used to process and package narcotics, and more than $150,000 in cash.
While free on bond, Freytes continued to sell drugs, federal officials said. During an October 2021 arrest, while on bond, DEA agents and Bristol police apprehended him as he pitched bags of fentanyl, cocaine and crack cocaine out of his bedroom window.
