Clinton man who smuggled cocaine through Logan in wheelchair gets 7 years for receiving kilo in mail

WORCESTER – A man jailed in 2014 for trying to use a wheelchair to smuggle 3 kilos of cocaine into Logan International Airport was sentenced to seven years in prison Tuesday for signing for a kilo of cocaine shipped to his Clinton home.

Emmanuelli Rojas-Moraza – described by his attorney in 2014 as a mentally disabled drug mule for murderous Dominican drug lords – received an 87-month sentence after a hearing in U.S. District Court Tuesday. 

Rojas-Moraza, 42, pleaded guilty in May to two federal drug charges stemming from a January 2020 arrest in which authorities reported intercepting a kilo of cocaine mailed to his Clinton address for the second time in nine months.

U.S. Postal inspectors said Rojas-Moraza signed for the second shipment during a sting operation conducted Jan. 24. They said the package, like the one sent months before it, contained a wrapped, sealed kilo hidden in purple wax within a soft black lunch bag adorned with images of white flowers.

The first package – which Rojas-Moraza allegedly told postal employees contained items relating to a move – was discovered and seized in April 2019, the inspector said, leading Rojas-Moraza to come asking about it five months later.

Inspectors intercepted the second package, searched it with a warrant, and then set up a sting operation that led to Rojas-Moraza’s arrest. 

Rojas-Moraza, formerly of 183 Pleasant St., Apt. 1L, Clinton, will be credited for the 599 days he has spent in jail following his arrest. 

His lawyers, Joseph F. Hennessey and Hector E. Pineiro, wrote in court papers that the man has long suffered from mental illness that was accelerated by a traumatic brain injury in 2008. 

According to the papers, Rojas-Moraza suffers from mood disorder with psychotic features, major depressive disorder with severe psychotic features, schizoaffective disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Mulcahy argued Tuesday that although the man’s mental struggles are well documented, there is no evidence suggesting he was not aware of what he was doing by accepting the drug shipments. 

Mulcahy noted Rojas-Moraza was separately sentenced to 27 months in federal prison in 2014 after admitting to trying to smuggle more than 3 kilos of cocaine and nearly 100 grams of heroin inside the wheels of a wheelchair on a flight from the Dominican Republic. 

In a 2014 sentencing memorandum, the man’s lawyer at the time, Oscar Cruz, said Rojas-Moraza was “likely manipulated by murderous drug traffickers (there) who remain outside the grasp of this court.”

Cruz said neither he nor the government were “privy to the details” of how Rojas-Moraza was recruited, as the man was too fearful to talk about it.

No details were discussed in court Tuesday about who mailed Rojas-Moraza cocaine in 2019 and 2020 or how he distributed it to others. 

Mulcahy, who argued for a 96-month sentence, said Rojas-Moraza has been “dealing drugs for a long time.” He did not elaborate. 

Rojas-Moraza, a native of Puerto Rico, addressed the court briefly prior to sentencing through a Spanish interpreter. 

The hearing was conducted over video conference, and the translator’s audio was not played in the public feed. 

Hennessey told the Telegram & Gazette after the hearing that Rojas-Moraza apologized to the court for his crimes. 

Rojas-Moraza was ordered to complete four years of supervised release following his sentence. 

He could have been looking at a minimum of 10 years in prison, lawyers said Tuesday, but his lawyers negotiated a lower range with prosecutors as part of a plea deal. 

The plea deal was struck at the same time Rojas-Moraza’s lawyers were contesting the validity of a search warrant in the case, court records show. 

Contact Brad Petrishen at brad.petrishen@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BPetrishenTG.