A Cobb County man is accused of selling large amounts of cocaine mailed to his home from Puerto Rico.
Marlon Matthew Pittman, 43, was indicted on charges of conspiring to possess more than 500 grams of cocaine and money laundering, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Two Puerto Rican men, 42-year-old Vladimir Collazo-Florido and 41-year-old Carlos Gonzalez-Catala, allegedly mailed the drugs from the island. They were also indicted on drug charges.
According to prosecutors, Collazo-Florido got the cocaine from the Dominican Republic and Colombia and then mailed the drugs from the United States territory to the mainland in parcels of up to 1½ kilograms.
The cocaine was sometimes hidden in things such as cans of beans or powdered milk, sometimes in children’s toys.
With the drugs delivered to his Lakeshore Drive home in Mableton, Pittman would then sell the cocaine to customers in Atlanta, South Carolina and Maryland, prosecutors said.
Pittman would allegedly bring cash to Puerto Rico — one time in a duffel bag containing $90,000 and other times by mailing U.S. Postal Service money orders.
What started as a money laundering investigation in 2012 eventually led to a series of wiretaps on cell phones of those involved in the drug ring, prosecutors said.
“These cocaine distributors sold poison to the community. We exploited their weaknesses and dismantled this once-thriving criminal network,” said Daniel R. Salter, the head of Drug Enforcement Administration in Atlanta.
The trio’s next scheduled court appearance is Oct. 11, according to federal court records.
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