South Windsor Man Gets 8-Plus Years In Mailed Cocaine Case

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — A South Windsor resident was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for his involvement in a cocaine business run partially through U.S. Postal Service packages, federal officials said.

John H. Durham, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut and Joseph W. Cronin, inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division, said that Ignacio Bruno, 33, of South Windsor, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in Bridgeport to 102 months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release, for trafficking cocaine.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Bruno coordinated the shipment of cocaine through the U.S. Mail from suppliers in Puerto Rico to various addresses in Connecticut and elsewhere in the northeastern U.S.

Bruno's co-conspirator, Juan Lugo Del Valle, mailed some of the parcels at Bruno’s direction from Puerto Rico, according to case records.

Bruno paid certain Connecticut residents to use their residences to receive cocaine parcels that had been mailed, case records indicate.

During the course of the investigation, law enforcement personnel seized multiple kilograms of cocaine that were attributable to Bruno, prosecutors said.

Bruno has been detained since his arrest on April 12, 2018. On Sept. 18 of this year, he entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, 500 grams or more of cocaine.

"Today’s sentencing should give fair warning to those who use the U.S. Mail to distribute cocaine and other illegal narcotics that postal inspectors will investigate and seek prosecution of those individuals," Cronin said. "We will vigorously pursue traffickers who put our communities at risk."

Lugo Del Valle pleaded guilty to the same offense and, on Nov. 19, was sentenced to 60 months in prison.