A New Britain man has received a five-year federal prison sentence for his role in a cocaine trafficking ring involving packages mailed to Connecticut from Puerto Rico.
Luis Torres Ortiz, 25, of New Britain, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 60 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney Office for the District of Connecticut.
Torres Ortiz previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine on Sept. 19, 2025,
An investigation led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Narcotics and Bulk Cash Trafficking Task Force identified Joseph Giovanni Soto as the leader of a conspiracy that was trafficking shipments of packages containing “kilogram quantities of cocaine” that were sent from U.S. post offices in Puerto Rico to various addresses in New Britain and Meriden, as well as addresses in Holyoke and West Springfield, Massachusetts.
According to court records, the organization reportedly used “runners” to pick up the packages from the drop addresses and deliver them to Soto’s home in Bloomfield, as well as the New Britain home of Soto’s uncle, Ramon Soto. “Typically, Ramon Soto, at Joseph Soto’s direction, then delivered the cocaine to individuals in the Bronx, New York, and elsewhere, in return for payment,” court records show.
During the investigation, task force members reportedly seized 10 suspicious packages that each contained two kilograms of cocaine and identified 280 packages that likely contained cocaine that were delivered to the various drop addresses, according to court records.
Joseph Giovanni Soto was arrested on May 1, 2023. In August 2023, investigators discovered that there were more suspicious packages arriving from Puerto Rico addressed to locations in New Britain and Meriden, as well as an address in Waterbury where Jatniel Morales Gonzalez was living, court records show.
According to investigators, Morales Gonzalez and Joseph Giovanni Soto were working together before to Joseph Giovanni Soto’s arrest. Following his arrest, investigators learned that that Morales Gonzalez had taken over control of the cocaine trafficking network, according to court records.
Investigators were able to identified several new drop addresses that were receiving packages and reportedly observed Morales Gonzalez, Torres Ortiz and others retrieving the packages and bringing them to Morales Gonzalez’s residence before they were delivered to the Bronx, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“During this part of the investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service identified more than 90 additional suspicious parcels, 24 of which had been shipped to Torres Ortiz’s residence in New Britain,: the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “Court-authorized searches of four seized parcels found that they each contained approximately two kilograms of cocaine.”
Torres Ortiz was arrested on Dec. 19, 2024. He is currently released on a $50,000 bond and is required to report to prison on April 21.
Joseph Giovanni Soto, Ramon Soto and Morales Gonzales all pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison terms of 14 years, 10 years and 10 years, respectively.