Cranston Man Admits To Helping Mail Cocaine From Puerto Rico To RI

CRANSTON, RI — A Cranston man admitted in federal court to working with a drug trafficking ring that used the U.S. Postal Service to mail more than 50 kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico to Rhode Island.

Nelson Santos Carvalho, 47, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.

Prosecutors said Carvalho provided members of a drug trafficking organization in Puerto Rico with residential and business addresses in Rhode Island. The organization used those addresses to ship U.S. Priority mail parcels, each containing approximately one kilogram of cocaine.

Carvalho also discussed arrival dates and retrieval of the packages with co-conspirators, retrieved the packages from locations throughout Rhode Island, including his work, transported the cocaine to co-conspirators in Rhode Island and performed other functions as needed to facilitate the operations of the drug trafficking organization, prosecutors said.

According to court documents, for more than 18 months, beginning in January 2018, Carvalho provided the organization with various Rhode Island addresses at which he and other persons known to him lived and worked. At least 11 of the packages were shipped to Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, where Carvalho worked as a mail clerk. Carvalho retrieved the packages from the post office and provided them to other co-conspirators.

Carvalho is the fourth defendant to admit to a role in this particular drug trafficking organization.

Co-conspirators George Mojica, 42, Angel Delgado, 25, and Arcadio Torres, 30, of Central Falls, previously admitted to a federal judge that they participated in the drug ring. Mojica and Delgado were sentenced in May to serve seven years and five years in federal prison. Torres is awaiting sentencing.

Carvalho is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 3.