A Jamaican in the USA smuggled drugs to Connecticut under a false identity

A Jamaica resident was sentenced to 32 years in prison this week for crimes including drug trafficking, identity fraud and money laundering, according to federal authorities.

Oniel Wilks, 45, a citizen of Jamaica, was sentenced to a total of 384 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford, according to the office of Vanessa Roberts Avery, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut

Citing evidence presented during Wilks' trial, federal authorities said the FBI's Bridgeport Safe Streets Task Force arrested several people in 2018, including another man, “who were distributing large quantities of heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine in and around Bridgeport.”

The investigation later revealed that Wilks supplied the other man with heroin, fentanyl and cocaine. Wilks used a false identity and lived in California, according to federal authorities.

Wilks was forced to leave the United States in February 2014 and return to Jamaica. He then illegally re-entered the United States and used stolen identification information to apply for and obtain a Florida driver's license in 2015 and a U.S. passport in 2016, federal authorities said. “Investigators determined that Wilks had used his fake passport to travel abroad, including to Japan and Thailand.”

Then in 2019, Wilks was stopped in Southern California using his stolen identity with five kilograms of suspected cocaine in his car, according to federal authorities.

“In the course of investigating Wilks' drug trafficking activities, investigators seized a package containing six kilograms of cocaine being shipped from California to Connecticut in July 2019,” federal authorities said in a statement. Wilks was arrested the following month, and court-ordered searches of two residences and a vehicle associated with him found approximately four kilograms of fentanyl/xylazine, narcotics processing and packaging items, false identification and more than $160,000 in cash, federal authorities said.

A jury found Wilks guilty in 2021 of one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, five kilograms or more of cocaine, and 400 grams or more of fentanyl; one count of making false statements on a passport application; one count of aggravated identity theft; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Wilks has been in custody since his arrest.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI's Bridgeport Safe Streets Task Force, Drug Enforcement Administration, Connecticut State Police, and the Bridgeport, Stratford, Norwalk, Seymour, and Trumbull police departments, with assistance from California officials, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force Group 44, Orange County Sheriff's Regional Narcotics Suppression Program, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and Culver City Police Department.