WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man previously convicted of trying to smuggle three kilograms (about 6.5 pounds) of cocaine through Logan Airport in a wheelchair has been sent back to prison for signing for a shipment of cocaine sent to his home.
Emmanuelli Rojas-Moraza, 42, of Clinton, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Worcester to more than seven years behind bars, The Telegram & Gazette reported.
He was arrested in January 2020 after authorities reported intercepting a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cocaine mailed to his address. U.S. Postal Inspectors said Rojas-Moraza signed for the shipment during a sting.
He pleaded guilty to drug charges in May.
His lawyers wrote in court papers that their client has long suffered from mental illness.
But the prosecutor said Tuesday that although Rojas-Moraza’s mental struggles are well documented, there is no evidence suggesting he was not aware of what he was doing by accepting drug shipments.
Rojas-Moraza was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison in 2014 after admitting to trying to smuggle cocaine and heroin inside the wheels of a wheelchair on a flight from the Dominican Republic.
His lawyer in that case said he was likely a drug mule for “murderous drug traffickers.”
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