Texas Man Sentenced for Role in Cocaine Trafficking Operation into Connecticut

WINDSOR, CT — A Texas man who pleaded guilty in March for his role in a cocaine trafficking operation was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

Christopher Chavez, 40, of El Paso, will have four years of supervised release following his prison term, as decreed by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer in New Haven. He was also ordered to pay a $25,000 fine.

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, said Chavez’s father, Raul Chavez, headed a cocaine trafficking operation that smuggled cocaine from Mexico into El Paso and then transported the drug to Connecticut and elsewhere.

The younger Chavez’s role in the conspiracy typically involved transporting the cocaine from locations in El Paso to a warehouse, where it was secreted within the cargo of tractor trailers bound for Connecticut. He also received and delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Sinaloa cartel, Daly said.

In 2014, the Chavez organization attempted to find an additional source of supply for its Hartford area cocaine customers. In July 2014, a DEA confidential source met Andrew Duron in North Carolina. During the meeting, Duron told the confidential source that he wanted to purchase up to 50 kilograms of cocaine for $28,000 per kilogram, Daly said.

On Aug. 14, 2014, Duron, the confidential source and an undercover DEA agent met in New Jersey, where Duron agreed to purchase 25 kilograms of cocaine. In subsequent conversations with the confidential source, Duron stated he wanted an extra $1,000 per kilogram as a side deal. They agreed on a total price of $725,000 for 25 kilograms of cocaine, Daly said.

Duron met the undercover DEA agent at a location in Wethersfield on Aug. 23, 2014. Duron told the undercover agent that his associates were in Connecticut and that Duron and the undercover agent would need to travel to a store parking lot near Bradley International Airport to verify that the money was in place. Duron and the undercover agent then drove in separate vehicles to a store parking lot on Kennedy Road in Windsor, Daly said.

Duron met with Raul Chavez and another associate in the store. A short time later, a third associate arrived in a Jeep Wrangler, met the undercover agent in the parking lot, showed him a duffel bag and said it contained “half” of the money. Shortly thereafter, investigators arrived at the scene and arrested Duron, Raul Chavez and his associates. Investigators also recovered from the Jeep a duffel bag containing approximately $284,000 in cash, and a loaded .38 caliber revolver, according to Daly.

After word reached Christopher Chavez that his father and others had been arrested, he coordinated the diversion of a shipment of 34 kilograms of cocaine that was en route to Connecticut to a high-level drug distributor in Cleveland, Ohio, Daly said.

Christopher Chavez was arrested in El Paso on Aug. 27, 2015, and has been detained since his arrest. On March 11, 2016, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, Daly said.

Raul Chavez and Duron also pleaded guilty. On September 22, 2015, Duron, also of El Paso, was sentenced to 84 months of imprisonment. Raul Chavez awaits sentencing.

Photo credit: Shutterstock