Waterbury Drug Trafficker Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that NESTOR SOSA-ORTIZ, 39, of Waterbury, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven to 120 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for trafficking fentanyl and heroin.

According to court documents and statements made in court, this matter stems from a joint investigation headed by the DEA New Haven Task Force and the Waterbury Police Department into a Waterbury-based drug trafficking operation headed by Sosa-Ortiz.  The investigation, which included the use of court-authorized wiretaps, physical surveillance, and controlled purchases of narcotics, revealed that Sosa-Ortiz’s organization received large quantities of fentanyl and heroin from suppliers in Connecticut and New York and distributed the narcotics through a network of co-conspirators.  After Sosa-Ortiz was arrested in New York City on a separate federal heroin and fentanyl trafficking charge in May 2019, he continued to control his drug network while incarcerated by using smuggled cell phones to communicate with various co-conspirators, including his sisters, Imirici Sosa-Ortiz and Isamelis Sosa-Ortiz.

The Sosa-Ortiz organization used an apartment located at 330 Bishop Street in Waterbury to store kilogram-quantities of fentanyl and heroin, and to process and package the drugs for street sale. 

On October 29, 2019, several of Nestor Sosa-Ortiz’s co-conspirators were arrested.  On that date, investigators executed search warrants at the Bishop Street apartment and four other locations and seized approximately six kilograms of fentanyl and heroin, approximately 100,000 bags of fentanyl/heroin packaged for street distribution, approximately 1,000 fentanyl pills disguised as Percocet pills, one firearm, and approximately $50,000 in cash.

Nestor-Sosa Ortiz has been detained since May 18, 2019, and his federal charges that were pending in the Southern District of New York were subsequently transferred to the District of Connecticut for further prosecution.  On June 18, 2020, he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin and 400 grams or more of fentanyl, related to both the Connecticut and New York.

Seventeen individuals were charged and convicted as a result of this investigation.  Imirici Sosa-Ortiz and Isamelis Sosa-Ortiz pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to 94 months of imprisonment.

This investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration New Haven Task Force and the Waterbury Police Department.  The DEA New Haven Task Force includes participants from the DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, Connecticut State Police and the New Haven, Waterbury, East Haven, Branford, West Haven, Ansonia, Meriden, Naugatuck, and Shelton Police Departments.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren C. Clark and Jocelyn Courtney Kaoutzanis 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.