BOSTON - A Dominican national was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Worcester for his role in a cocaine conspiracy.
Ricardo Ortega Vasquez, 42, a Dominican national residing in New York City, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman to time-served (approximately 22 months) and three years of supervised release. Ortega Vasquez will be subject to deportation proceedings. In March 2018, Ortega Vasquez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute cocaine and to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute. Ortega Vasquez and four co-defendants, Vito Nuzzolilo and Kristin Little, both of Worcester; and Thomas Walker and Melissa Rock, both of Pemaquid, Maine, were indicted in July 2017.
According to court documents, Nuzzolilo ordered sizable quantities of heroin and cocaine from a New York-based supplier, and Ortega Vasquez transported cocaine from New York City to Nuzzolilo on behalf of the New York-based source of supply. On May 7, 2017, law enforcement seized more than a quarter-kilogram of cocaine from Ortega Vasquez in Worcester, shortly after Ortega Vasquez had taken a bus from New York City to Worcester.
In November 2017, Danielle Lloyd, 44, of Worcester, pleaded guilty to her role in this conspiracy and admitted to facilitating the shipment of heroin and cocaine from New York to Worcester on May 7, 2017, and another on April 25, 2017. Lloyd was sentenced by Judge Hillman on March 21, 2018, to time-served.
In November 2018, Walker was sentenced to 30 months in prison; in September 2018, Rock was sentenced to one year and one day in prison; and in June 2018, Little was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Nuzzolilo has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Brian D. Boyle, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division; and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Abely of Lelling’s Criminal Division prosecuted the case.
The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
