A New Britain man known on the streets as “Maple” is headed to federal prison for a decade after fueling a narcotics operation based out of a local car dealership.
David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced Friday that 48-year-old Eli Samuel O’Farrill-Fernandez was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to 120 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for his role in a major cocaine trafficking conspiracy.
The crackdown stems from a 2024 investigation by the FBI’s Northern Connecticut Gang Task Force and the New Britain Police Department.
Authorities focused their attention on a drug trafficking organization led by Wilfredo Ortiz, which investigators say operated directly out of Supreme Automotive on Main Street in New Britain.
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Through the use of court-authorized wiretaps, physical surveillance, and several controlled drug buys, law enforcement identified O’Farrill-Fernandez as a primary supplier for the group. Court records detail two specific deliveries in late 2024 where O’Farrill-Fernandez provided Ortiz with a total of six kilograms of cocaine at the automotive business.
The hammer fell on November 14, 2024, when O’Farrill-Fernandez, Ortiz, and several associates were taken into custody.
Simultaneous searches of the car dealership and related residences yielded a massive haul: more than five kilograms of cocaine, 200 grams of fentanyl, heroin, a kilogram press, seven firearms, and $75,000 in cash. Officers also seized 26 vehicles linked to the operation. At O’Farrill-Fernandez’s Maple Street home, investigators discovered metal press plates and various tools used to package narcotics into bulk bricks.
O’Farrill-Fernandez has remained in custody since his arrest and pleaded guilty in November 2025 to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.
His partner in the scheme, Wilfredo Ortiz, pleaded guilty to the same charge and received a 135-month sentence earlier this week on March 9, 2026.
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