BOSTON – A former United Parcel Service (UPS) employee pleaded guilty on Jan. 17, 2017, in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with his role in a cocaine trafficking organization that shipped cocaine, secreted in UPS packages, from Puerto Rico to Massachusetts.
Jorge Carrasquillo-Ortiz, 41, of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted distribution of 500 grams of cocaine. U.S. District Court Senior Judge Rya Zobel scheduled sentencing for April 13, 2017.
Carrasquillo-Ortiz, a UPS employee in Puerto Rico, worked on behalf of a drug trafficking organization that shipped cocaine laden packages from Puerto Rico to Massachusetts via UPS. Carrasquillo-Ortiz was paid $1,200 for each kilogram of cocaine that he shipped on behalf of the drug trafficking organization. In June 2016, a cooperating witness began placing recorded telephone calls to Carrasquillo-Ortiz in which they made plans for a six-kilogram shipment. The telephone calls culminated in the delivery of a box containing six kilograms of “sham” cocaine to Carrasquillo-Ortiz in Puerto Rico. Carrasquillo-Ortiz snuck the package through UPS security, and it was placed on a UPS airplane, where it was delivered to Massachusetts. Carrasquillo-Ortiz then called back the cooperating witness, expecting payment for his services; instead, Carrasquillo-Ortiz was arrested at his home in August 2016.
The narcotics charge provides for a minimum mandatory sentence of five years and no greater than 40 years in prison, a minimum of three years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of $5 million. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
United States Attorney William D. Weinreb; Michael J. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division; Colonel Richard D. McKeon, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Shelly Binkowski, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric S. Rosen of Weinreb’s Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit is prosecuting the case.