Connecticut Man Pleads Guilty After Police Find 21 Kilograms of Cocaine in SUV

A Connecticut man has pleaded guilty to a drug charge after authorities found him in possession of more than 20 kilograms of cocaine. Reginald Rogers, 37, was arrested in February while driving an SUV in Trumbull.

On May 27, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut announced that Rogers had appeared before U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill and entered a guilty plea. By doing so, he waived his right to indictment.

Rogers, of Woodbridge in New Haven County, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Connecticut State Police took him into custody on Feb. 23, 2026.

At the time, officers spotted Rogers driving a Subaru Crosstrek in Trumbull and stopped the vehicle as part of a Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) investigation. The HSTF is a coalition of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies aimed at combating smuggling and trafficking rings.

After Connecticut State Police stopped Rogers, a K9 unit conducted a sniff of the vehicle and alerted officers to narcotics. Officers then searched the SUV and found 21 kilograms of cocaine hidden under the seats.

Rogers’ sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 26. He was released on a $150,000 bond and has surrendered the SUV that authorities said was used to transport drugs. Rogers faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison on the charge..

Rogers’ guilty plea was announced just days after another man from New Haven County pleaded guilty to a fentanyl distribution offense. Christian Lopez, 42, was arrested on April 10, 2023, in connection with two fentanyl transactions totaling about 300 grams.

He was also accused of being an associate of Luis Salaman, a man accused of distributing large quantities of narcotics in New Haven. “Between November 2021 and March 2022, investigators made multiple controlled purchases of distribution-level quantities of fentanyl from Salaman and his associates, including Lopez,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut said in a statement.

On May 21, authorities announced that Lopez had pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute, and distribution of, 40 grams or more of fentanyl. He will also be sentenced in August and could face from five to 40 years in prison.

Meanwhile, HSTF’s crackdown on narcotics distribution continues. Earlier this month, two people from the same family were taken into custody in Ohio for allegedly possessing around 80 kilograms of cocaine.

Damian Galan, 31, of Cincinnati, and Diego Galan, 19, of Fairfield, were busted after HSTF officials got a lead about a narcotics transaction at the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Columbus.

“Damian and Diego Galan allegedly traveled to the hotel in tandem and obtained four 17-gallon storage containers from two Hispanic males staying at the hotel,” the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stated at the time.