PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Efrain Arroyo Melendez, aka Frank Feliz Baez, 49, of the Allston section of Boston, Mass., has been sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for trafficking heroin into Providence, R.I., announced United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha and Michael Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New England Field Division.
At sentencing on July 22, 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi also ordered Melendez to serve 5 years supervised release upon completion of his prison sentence. Melendez pleaded guilty on March 2, 2015, to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute heroin, and one count of possession and attempt to possess with the intent to distribute heroin.
According to court records and information presented to the court, on Jan. 27, 2014, as a result of a DEA investigation into the alleged trafficking of heroin into Providence, DEA agents, with the assistance of Rhode Island State Police, intercepted a piece of luggage at the Amtrak Station inside of which they discovered approximately 2.3 kilograms of heroin.
After taking the woman who was carrying the luggage, Amalia Martin, 39, of Providence, into custody, agents learned that the package of heroin was to be delivered to Melendez. The next day DEA agents arranged to deliver a package purporting to contain the heroin to Melendez. Melendez was arrested after taking custody of the package from a DEA undercover agent.
Martin, who pleaded guilty on Dec. 18, 2014, to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute heroin, and one count of possession and attempt to possess with the intent to distribute heroin is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 15, 2015.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul F. Daly, Jr.
Officers assigned to the Rhode Island DEA Drug Task Force assisted in the investigation.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
