A career criminal from Hartford was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford to more than five years in prison for distributing heroin that reached southeastern Connecticut.

Edwin DeJesus, 48, of Hartford had pleaded guilty on May 31 to one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin. U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant imposed a sentence of 64 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. 

According to the government, in 2018 the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Norwich Police Department and other law enforcement agencies began investigating a drug trafficking organization that was distributing heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine in southeastern Connecticut. The investigation, which included court-authorized wiretaps and controlled purchases of narcotics, revealed that DeJesus supplied heroin to a codefendant who distributed the drug to his own customer in southeastern Connecticut.

DeJesus has been detained since his arrest on Feb. 20, 2019. On March 5, a grand jury returned an indictment charging him and 12 other individuals with narcotics trafficking offenses.

DeJesus' criminal history spans 30 years and includes a federal conviction for conspiracy to assault a federal officer. In March 1995, he was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment for that offense.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI, Connecticut State Police and Norwich, Town of Groton and Waterford police departments, with the assistance of the FBI's Baltimore Field Office, Baltimore Police Department and Delaware State Police. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Natasha M. Freismuth and S. Dave Vatti.