MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Police were watching last June when Gianmarco Ponce picked up 51 pounds of marijuana from a man in the parking lot of the Crystal Mall in Waterford.The deal, caught on surveillance tapes, and the discovery of the pot -- with an estimated street value of more than $80,000 -- inside Ponce's car resulted in his guilty plea Monday in Superior Court.
The plea deal might mean that Ponce will get about 13 years less than the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 14.
Ponce, 25, of Union City, N.J., appeared nervous as he entered his guilty plea before Judge Frank A. Iannotti to a charge of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell. Russell C. Zentner, senior assistant state's attorney, said that a confidential informant alerted police to the drug deal before it occurred.
Agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Clinton, New London and state police hatched a plan to nab the drug suspects before they had a chance to leave the state. With hidden cameras rolling, Ponce picked up the marijuana and loaded it into his new Honda, police said.
When Ponce and a man driving a BMW left the mall, police were not far behind.
``They were constantly watching them,'' Clinton Police Chief Joseph Faughnan said.
As Ponce's Honda and the BMW headed toward New York on I-95, police stopped the men at the Westbrook-Clinton line. Detectives later searched a building where the marijuana had reportedly been stored prior to the drug deal. Court records do not identify the location of the building.
Ponce later told police that he was paid $1,500 to transport the drugs, Zentner said.
Last month, Angel More Portella, 35, was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the drug deal. Portella also faces deportation once he is released, according to court records.
Information From: AP Wire Services
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