Bronx Man Receives 70 Months for Heroin and Fentanyl Convictions

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Gilberto Velasquez, age 38, of the Bronx, New York, was sentenced today to 70 months in prison for conspiring to traffic heroin and fentanyl from New York City to the Capital Region, and for distributing heroin. 

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Frank A. Tarentino III, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), made the announcement.

In pleading guilty, Velasquez admitted to organizing a conspiracy that trafficked approximately 89 grams of heroin and 10 grams of fentanyl from New York City to the Capital Region, while he was on parole from a state prison term.  Velasquez, operating out of New York City, sold quantities of heroin bags and fentanyl-laced pills to customers in the Capital Region using “runners” to transport the controlled substances via commercial bus lines.

United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby also ordered Velasquez to serve a 3-year term of supervised release after he is released from prison.    

The DEA and the Colonie Police Department investigated this case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Emmet O’Hanlon prosecuted it.