Newington Man Sentenced In Cocaine Dealing Case: Feds

NEWINGTON, CT — A man last residing in Newington has been sentenced to ten years in prison for trafficking cocaine, according to a statement from Vanessa Roberts Avery, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut. Angel Luis Rodriguez, 45, will also serve five years of supervised release and was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.

Law enforcement first identified Rodriguez’s connection to drug trafficking in January 2018 when a DEA undercover agent posing as a money broker picked up $118,070 in heroin trafficking profits from a man later identified as Rodriguez, according to prosecutors.

In April 2018, the undercover agent picked up $130,950 in drug trafficking profits from Rodriguez’s associate, Ismael Roman, also known as “Poochie” and “Pete.” On May 1, 2019, after investigators saw Rodriguez and Roman meet at an associate’s apartment in Enfield, they stopped Roman’s car and seized $27,000 in suspected drug profits, according to prosecutors.

That same day, investigators searched the associate’s apartment and seized more than $1.1 million in cash.

Investigators learned that Rodriguez and Roman conspired to traffic cocaine and that Rodriguez used tractor-trailer drivers to transport drugs to Connecticut, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez arranged with a tractor-trailer driver Dec. 1, 2020, to pick up approximately 15 kilograms of cocaine in the Chicago area, transport the cocaine back to Connecticut, and then return to Chicago with payment for the cocaine, prosecutors said.

Two days later, 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 Dec. 4, 2020. He pleaded guilty in July 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 to 41 months in prison.