A Suffield man sold cocaine while on supervised release for a drug trafficking conviction. Now he’s headed back to prison for 8 years. 

A Suffield man was sentenced Tuesday to nearly eight years in prison for trafficking cocaine while on supervised release, federal officials said.

Sergio Horta-Molina, 47, was convicted of violating the conditions of his supervised release, which stemmed from a prior conviction for narcotics trafficking, when he was caught dealing cocaine in Connecticut and Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Horta-Molina appeared in court in Bridgeport on Tuesday and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley to 94 months in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release for trafficking cocaine and violating the conditions of his supervised release from the prior trafficking conviction, federal officials said.

He pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, according to federal officials.

Court records show that the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Hartford Task Force began investigating a drug trafficking organization in Enfield and Springfield, Massachusetts, that had ties to a Mexican drug cartel in October 2021.

Investigators believed the organization was trafficking heroin and multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine. Investigators used wiretaps and undercover purchases of the drugs to lead them to Horta-Molina. He was arrested again on May 5, 2021, when investigators learned that he was arranging the shipment of narcotics to Connecticut and distributing them to other members of the organization who sold the drugs to street-level traffickers and customers.

Horta-Molina was previously convicted of conspiring to distribute cocaine and heroin in New Jersey after investigators searched his home in Suffield in September 2017 and found 23 kilograms of cocaine and one kilogram of heroin, federal officials said.

He was sentenced to 40 months in prison and five years of supervised release but was released early in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.