SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – On March 26, 2026, U.S. District Court Judge Aida Delgado-Colón sentenced Carlos Manuel Cotto-Cruz to 188 months (fifteen years and eight months) in prison followed by five years of supervised release for possession with intent to distribute cocaine, crack cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana, and heroin in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Following a five-day jury trial that concluded on March 14, 2025, the defendant was found guilty. At trial, the United States presented numerous witnesses to establish the defendant’s participation in the charged drug trafficking activities.
After a 6-month manhunt, on May 7th, 2021, the Puerto Rico Police Bureau (PRPB) apprehended Carlos M. Cotto-Cruz in el Gato Ward in Orocovis, PR. He had been hiding there since February 2021. During the execution of the arrest, agents found distribution amounts of narcotics, including heroin, cocaine, crack, fentanyl, prescription pills, and marihuana. Along with those drugs, officers also found tools of the drug trade, including 2 vacuum sealing machines, a cash counting machine, baggies of different sizes, thousands of vials and caps, and wrapping foil.
The sentence imposed by Judge Delgado-Colon is to run consecutively to any sentence imposed at the local level, as the defendant currently has pending murder charges in local court.
The Court also imposed a consecutive term of 24 months of imprisonment in connection with a revocation from a prior federal drug and firearms case from 2015, as defendant committed the new offense while on federal supervised release.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Assistant United States Attorneys Corinne Cordero, Joseph Russell, and Jeanette Collazo, Chief of the Violent Crime Division, prosecuted the case.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
