FirstAlerts

Hartford Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Cocaine Trafficking Charge

Jose Colon, 61, faces up to 40 years in prison following a federal drug trafficking investigation in Connecticut.

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 20, 2026, 9:15 a.m. ET
On August 11, 2026, U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan and DEA Special Agent in Charge Jarod Forget announced that Jose Colon, 61, of Hartford, guilty in federal court to a cocaine trafficking charge. The court case remains open as a developing matter. According to court documents, Colon, also known as 'Uncle Benny,' waived his right to be indicted and guilty before U.S. District Judge Sarah F. Russell in New Haven. Colon admitted to attempting to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, an offense carrying a mandatory minimum term of 5 years in prison and a maximum term of 40 years. Judge Russell scheduled sentencing for November 12, and Colon has been detained since his arrest. Court records show that an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration's Hartford Task Force revealed Colon attempted to purchase several kilograms of cocaine in January and February 2026. On February 19, 2026, investigators arrested Colon and two associates at his residence on Pearl Street in Hartford, where a court-authorized search seized approximately $52,000 in cash. Justice Department records show Colon was convicted of federal heroin trafficking in October 2015 and is currently on state probation following a conviction for second-degree sexual assault. Assistant U.S. Attorney Reed Durham is prosecuting the case under Operation Take Back America.

Was this report accurate and useful?

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 120 Aug 2026, 13:15current

    First published.

How we work

This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble β€” all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.

Reports are built from primary sources β€” accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements β€” and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.

Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld β€” a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them β€” and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.

None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.