Leonard C Boyle, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MARBIN JIMENEZ, also known as “Rabia,” 33, of Waterbury, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant in Hartford to 57 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for distributing fentanyl.
According to court documents and statements made in court, this matter stems from a joint investigation headed by the DEA New Haven Task Force and the Waterbury Police Department into a Waterbury-based drug trafficking operation headed by Nestor Sosa-Ortiz. The investigation, which included the use of court-authorized wiretaps, physical surveillance, and controlled purchases of narcotics, revealed that Sosa-Ortiz’s organization received large quantities of heroin and fentanyl from suppliers in Connecticut and New York and distributed the narcotics throughout New Haven County. After Sosa-Ortiz was arrested in New York City on a separate federal heroin and fentanyl trafficking charge in May 2019, he continued to control his drug network while incarcerated by using smuggled cell phones to communicate with various co-conspirators, including his sisters, Isamelis Sosa-Ortiz and Imirici Sosa-Ortiz, in Waterbury.
On November 6, 2019, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging 15 members of the Sosa-Ortiz drug trafficking organization with conspiring to distribute heroin and fentanyl. A superseding indictment returned in January 2020 added a sixteenth defendant.
Jimenez was subsequently identified as a redistributor for the Sosa-Ortiz drug trafficking organization. On three occasions in July and August 2020, investigators conducted controlled purchases of fentanyl from Jimenez.
Jimenez has been detained since his arrest on August 31, 2020. At the time of his arrest, he possessed approximately 150 grams of fentanyl, kilogram presses, digital scales, and a drug ledger. Jimenez pleaded guilty on November 1, 2021.
Nestor Sosa-Ortiz, Isamelis Sosa-Ortiz and Imirici Sosa-Ortiz have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
This investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration New Haven Task Force and the Waterbury Police Department. The DEA New Haven Task Force includes participants from the U.S. Marshals Service, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, and the New Haven, Hamden, West Haven, North Haven, Branford, Ansonia, Meriden, Derby, Middletown, Naugatuck, and Waterbury Police Departments.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tara E. Levens, Lauren C. Clark and Jocelyn Courtney Kaoutzanis.