NORTHAMPTON – A Connecticut couple pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges stemming from a scheme to smuggle Suboxone into the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction.
Suboxone is prescribed to treat opioid dependence.
Francisco Javier Garcia, 45, and his wife, Ana Colon, 44, of Broad Brook, Connecticut, each pleaded guilty in Hampshire Superior Court to possession of a class B substance with intent to distribute and conspiracy to violate drug laws. The charge of delivering drugs to a prisoner was dropped for both defendants.
Garcia received a one-year sentence in jail as part of his plea and was given five days credit for time served. Judge John Agostini accepted the prosecution’s recommendation that Colon be sentenced to two years probation. The defense had asked for a single year.
Agostini, however, said that he tries to go out of his way to not make probation a punishment.
“I don’t think that probation should be used that way,” he said. “I think it should be used as a resource.”
The charges brought against Garcia and Colon stem from a March 2018 incident during which time Garcia was an inmate at the jail. It also allegedly involved two other people, Francis Pabon and Matthew Reyes, both of whom have a hearing for a change of plea scheduled for Thursday. Both men each face one charge each of drug possession to distribute a class B substance, conspiracy to violate drug laws and delivering drugs to a prisoner.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.