LUDLOW, Mass. (WWLP) – A commercial truck driver was sentenced to prison for trafficking cocaine from California to the Ludlow service plaza on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
According to the Department of Justice, an investigation began in August 2022 into a Mexican-based drug trafficking organization looking to set up a cocaine distribution network in the Boston area. The FBI provided information to the Massachusetts State Police that two Mexican suppliers were heading to the state to deliver the truckload of cocaine.
On August 29, 2022, 31-year-old Joel Enrique Armenta Castro drove from Boston to the Ludlow service plaza. Castro obtained 15 kilograms of cocaine from a tractor-trailer driven from California by 25-year-old Gerardo Madrigal Quintero. Officers witnessed the transaction and arrested Castro.
Shortly after, police stopped the tractor-trailer truck on I-91 South in Longmeadow, and Quintero was taken into custody.
Quintero of Culiacan, Mexico pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of and possession with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. He was sentenced in federal court in Boston on October 5th to 29 months in prison and two years of supervised release.
Castro of Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and one count of distribution of and possession with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. He was sentenced on in federal court in Boston on September 28th to four years in prison and two years of supervised release.
About 15 kilograms of cocaine were seized, with the street value of the drugs of over $500,000.
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