Coast-to-Coast Trafficker Sentenced to 275 Months for Transporting More than 2100 Pounds of Cocaine
DELAWARE – A Queens man has been sentenced to 275 months in prison for his role in a nationwide cocaine-trafficking conspiracy.
On May 29, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika sentenced 65-year-old Brahmananda Prasad, and ordered him to forfeit $2,495,500 of personal funds, which represents the gross proceeds of the Prasad’s cocaine enterprise.
“Brahmananda Prasad made millions by pumping poison into several states on the East Coast, Delaware included. But due to the dogged efforts of federal prosecutors and agents, Prasad will pay those millions back—and will spend more than two decades in prison to boot,” said U.S. Attorney Benjamin L. Wallace. “This just sentence should send a message to other large-scale drug traffickers: if your product touches Delaware, we will find you and hold you accountable, even if you never once set foot in our State.”
According to court documents, Prasad regularly flew from his home in New York to California, where he met with cocaine suppliers and purchased multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine, procuring anywhere from 20 to 48 kilograms at a time. Prasad then shipped the cocaine back to New York, directing others to pose as representatives of his ostensibly legitimate shipping company to evade detection. Once back on the East Coast, Prasad distributed cocaine to sub-distributors in New York and Maryland, who further distributed the cocaine in Delaware and elsewhere along the East Coast.
Authorities say their investigation into Prasad’s cocaine-trafficking conspiracy included drug seizures, surveillance, analysis of flight and shipping records, and a nearly four-month wiretap, among other measures. The investigation revealed that Prasad had been shipping cocaine across the country since at least 2021, and that he was responsible for bringing at least 956 kilograms (2107.62 pounds) of cocaine to the East Coast for further distribution; an amount six times the volume attributed to any other drug defendant prosecuted in the District of Delaware in recent history.
“Through persistent investigative work and strong partnerships with our law enforcement counterparts, [Homeland Security Investigations] dismantled a coast-to-coast trafficking operation responsible for flooding the East Coast with staggering quantities of cocaine,” said Acting Special Agent Nathan Abel. “We remain committed to holding traffickers accountable and protecting our neighborhoods from the devastating impact of narcotics distribution.”
