Cross-Border Heroin Scheme Lands West Warwick Man In Federal Prison

BURLINGTON, VT — A West Warwick, Rhode Island, man was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for scheming to traffic heroin from the United States to Quebec, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Freddy Rodriguez, 40, was sentenced Monday in federal court in Vermont, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a media release. Rodriguez previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to export heroin from the United States to Quebec.

According to court documents, U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations agents "encountered Rodriguez" in September 2023 on the "shore of Missisquoi Bay on Lake Champlain in Highgate, Vermont," the release said.

"Based on text messages recovered from Rodriguez’s phone, he appeared to have expected to receive a large quantity of cash and (ecstasy) in exchange for the controlled substances he was attempting to deliver," the release said. "In the driveway of the property on Missisquoi Bay Rodriguez had rented for the event, agents seized a Ford F-150 truck that was later found to have a sophisticated locking trap — a void used for secretly transporting large quantities of drugs or currency—under the truck’s rear seats."

The bricks recovered from the kayak turned out to contain about 10 kilograms of heroin, according to the release.