Thwarted pill delivery to East Lyme leads to federal prison sentence

A 32-year-old Canterbury man who was arrested last year after he attempted to purchase a large quantity of Oxycodone pills in East Lyme was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison.

According to the government, Christopher Roderick was carrying $20,255 in cash and had arranged to purchase 1,920 Oxycodone pills, when law enforcement officers stopped him at a pre-arranged meeting location in East Lyme in June 2011. He was arrested three months later.

Roderick, who the government said was attempting to purchase and resell 30 milligram strength Oxycodone, was arrested as part of “Operation Blue Coast,” an investigation headed by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bridgeport High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force into the large-scale trafficking of Oxycodone pills from Florida to Connecticut. 

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office,  an individual regularly purchased Oxycodone from suppliers in Florida, transported the Oxycodone to Connecticut by commercial airline or automobile, and sold the pills for profit to various Connecticut-based narcotics dealers.  After exchanging low-denomination currency for larger notes, he transported the proceeds of his Oxycodone sales from Connecticut to Florida, either by having a courier drive the money or by using commercial airline flights.

Twenty people, including three Transportation Security Administration officers, a Florida State Trooper and a Westchester County Police Officer, have been charged as a result of the investigation.

The case is being prosecuted in the District of Connecticut by Assistant United States Attorneys Rahul Kale and Tracy Lee Dayton.