Philadelphia Man Admits Drug Trafficking Conspiracy Involving over 100 Kilograms of Cocaine

DOJ Press

CAMDEN, N.J. – A Philadelphia man today admitted conspiring to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine as part of a drug-trafficking organization operating in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Iran Soler, 43, Philadelphia, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn in Camden federal court to an information charging him with one count of conspiring to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Soler and his conspirators traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on commercial flights from Philadelphia International Airport on numerous occasions between March 2019 and August 2020. They purchased multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine from wholesale drug suppliers based in the San Juan area in exchange for cash payments. Soler and the conspirators then shipped the kilograms of cocaine by overnight delivery from U.S. Post Offices in San Juan to various addresses in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, where a conspirator, Jose Gonzalez, resold the cocaine to other drug dealers in the Philadelphia area for a profit. Soler and the other conspirators purchased and shipped over 100 kilograms of cocaine to Philadelphia and southern New Jersey between March 2019 and August 2020.  


The drug-trafficking conspiracy charge carries a mandatory penalty of 10 years in prison, a maximum potential penalty of life in prison, and a maximum fine of $10 million.  Soler is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 6, 2023.


Gonzalez previously pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 30, 2023.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Philadelphia Division, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge Raimundo Marrero; agents of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Area Field Office, under the leadership of Special Agent in Charge Matthew Modafferi; special agents of the FBI’s Atlantic City Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark; special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire in Philadelphia; troopers assigned to the New Jersey State Police Strategic Investigations Unit South, under the direction of Col. Patrick J. Callahan; and officers and detectives of the Philadelphia Police Department, under the direction of Police Commissioner Daniel Outlaw, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick C. Askin of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.

You appear to be using an ad blocker

Shore News Network is a free website that does not use paywalls or charge for access to original, breaking news content. In order to provide this free service, we rely on advertisements. Please support our journalism by disabling your ad blocker for this website.