West Haven Man Admits To Trafficking Cocaine Through Mail: Feds

WEST HAVEN, CT — A West Haven man has pleaded guilty to a federal charged in connection with trafficking cocaine through the U.S. mail, according to officials.

Jean Mangual-Castro, 35, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Hartford to a cocaine trafficking offense, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery announced.

According to court documents and statements made in court, an investigation headed by the FBI’s New Haven Safe Streets/Gang Task Force and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Narcotics and Bulk Cash Trafficking Task Force found that Mangual-Castro was “orchestrating shipments of cocaine through the U.S. Mail from Puerto Rico,” officials wrote in a news release.

“On December 20, 2021, after investigators identified that a suspicious package had been delivered to the West Haven residence of Mangual-Castro’s mother, investigators conducted a court-authorized search of the residence and seized approximately two kilograms of cocaine, a Rolex watch, jewelry, and approximately $2,900 in cash,” the news release states. “During the investigation, law enforcement also found at another location approximately three kilograms of cocaine that had been mailed from Puerto Rico to Connecticut at Mangual-Castro’s direction.

“Investigators identified more than 30 suspicious parcels that had been shipped from Puerto Rico to addresses connected to Mangual-Castro in Connecticut.”

Mangual-Castro pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, an offense that carries a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in prison and a maximum term of imprisonment of life.

Mangual-Castro, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5, has been detained since his arrest on Dec. 20.