Milford man who used telegram app to traffic drugs sentenced to 3 years in federal prison

Date: September 4, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Wilson Guzman, Jr., of Milford, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala in Hartford 36 months of imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release, for distributing various drugs on Telegram, an encrypted phone messaging application.

According to court documents and statements made in court, a DEA New Haven Task Force investigation revealed that Guzman advertised various controlled substances, including fake oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and fake Adderall pills containing methamphetamine, and other drugs, on Telegram. He then distributed the drugs to customers in person and through the U.S. mail. Guzman used locations in West Haven, North Haven, and East Haven to store and prepare narcotics for distribution. Between May and August 2023, investigators made controlled purchases of drugs from Guzman, including more than 1,000 counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, counterfeit Adderall containing methamphetamine, and psilocybin mushrooms.

Guzman was arrested on September 6, 2023. On that date investigators searched his Milford residence and the West Haven and North Haven locations and seized various controlled substances, including counterfeit Adderall pills, psilocybin mushrooms, and approximately 20 kilograms of marijuana, as well as an AR-15 style rifle and a Glock style Polymer 80 handgun that had no serial numbers ("ghost guns").

Guzman has been detained since September 21, 2023, after he continued to use Telegram for drug trafficking activity and his bond was revoked. He pleaded guilty on May 20, 2024.

This matter was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), the Drug Enforcement Administration's New Haven Task Force, the East Haven Police Department, West Haven Police Department, New Haven Police Department, Connecticut State Police, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the U.S. Marshals Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel E. Cummings.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.