Federal prosecutors said Monday that Angel Luis “Lou Rock” Rodriguez of Newington was sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling cocaine.
According to information presented in court, Rodriguez and an associate tried to transport more than 30 pounds of cocaine from Chicago to Connecticut, but the shipment was intercepted by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Federal authorities said they suspected Rodriguez of drug trafficking when he began doing business with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was posing as a money broker who charged a fee to drug dealers trying to get rid of the massive quantities of cash they accumulate from sales.
They first became aware of Rodriguez, authorities said, in Hartford in January 2018 when the undercover agent picked up $118,070 in heroin trafficking proceeds from him.
Four months later, the undercover agent collected $130,950 in drug trafficking proceeds from Rodriguez’s associate, Ismael Roman, also known as “Poochie” and “Pete.” On May 1, 2019, after investigators observed Rodriguez and Roman meet at an associate’s apartment in Enfield, they stopped Roman’s car and seized $27,000 in suspected narcotics proceeds. That same day, investigators searched the associate’s apartment and seized more than $1.1 million in cash.
During the investigation, investigators learned that Rodriguez and Roman conspired to traffic cocaine, and that Rodriguez used tractor-trailer drivers to transport narcotics to Connecticut. On Dec. 1, 2020, Rodriguez arranged with a tractor-trailer driver to pick up about 15 kilograms of cocaine in the Chicago area, transport the cocaine back to Connecticut, and then return to Chicago with payment for the cocaine. On Dec. 3, 2020, the individual picked up 15 brick-shaped packages of cocaine, weighing a total of approximately 14.5 kilograms, at a truck stop in the Chicago area. Rodriguez and Roman were arrested the next day.
Rodriguez has been detained since his arrest on Dec. 4, 2020. On July 15, 2022, he pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, cocaine.
Roman, 43, of Hartford, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced on Oct. 13 to 41 months of imprisonment.
