Meriden Man Sentenced For Trafficking Cocaine Through Mail: Feds

MERIDEN, CT — A Meriden man has been sentenced to more than four years in federal prison for trafficking cocaine through the mail, according to officials.

Jean Carlos Mercado, 34, was sentenced Friday to 50 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a drug trafficking organization that used the U.S. Mail to ship kilogram quantities of cocaine from Puerto Rico to Connecticut, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery announced.

Police began investigating after identifying suspicious parcels mailed from Puerto Rico to an address in Meriden in October 2020, according to officials. Mercado was identified after he picked up a parcel from that location on Oct. 26, 2020, officials said.

“After Mercado picked up another parcel from the location on November 6, 2020, investigators coordinated a traffic stop of his vehicle, which was unregistered, and towed the vehicle and seized the parcel,” officials wrote in a news release. “A court-authorized search of the parcel revealed two kilograms of cocaine. In the following months, Mercado conspired with others to pick up postal parcels, and law enforcement seized four more kilograms of cocaine linked to Mercado.”

Mercado was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on July 21, 2021. He pleaded guilty in July 2022 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine.

At the conclusion of Friday’s court proceeding, Mercado, who was released on bond, was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service to begin serving his sentence, according to officials.