More than 100 people have been arrested after federal agents busted what they say are two large-scale trafficking operations bringing heroin and cocaine into Connecticut.
About 700 officers carried out dawn raids Wednesday to make the arrests. The drug trafficking operations were said to have been headquartered in New London, but multiple law enforcement agencies cooperated on the sting, and arrests were made across the region and even internationally, according to U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, David Fein.
“This case is a textbook example of the best in law enforcement cooperation, local, state and federal, in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and Puerto Rico,” he said.
David Fein, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, announcing Wednesday’s huge drug bust.
Fein alleges two overlapping drug conspiracies were smuggling heroin and cocaine into the country from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, both by mail and via human couriers.
Bruce Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England, said the sting is the culmination of a 15-month investigation.
“They pretty much made this particular area a gateway for their illegal poison,” Foucart said. “And the fact is, we’ve dismantled them. We’ve taken them down.”
He says the operation chokes off a major drug stream into the state, the largest his agency has ever uncovered here, and responsible for a large percentage of the heroin and cocaine available for street sale in New London County. Those arrested face a variety of federal and state charges related to narcotics and money laundering.