A New Britain man who helped Los Solidos gang members in Hartford illegally obtain firearms was sentenced Tuesday to almost four years in prison.
Carlos Soto, 39, was sentenced to 46 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Michael Shea.
Soto, known as “Puchie,” was among the more than a dozen Los Solidos associates, including top gang leader Ricardo “Rick the Ruler” Reyes, who were arrested last summer in a major crackdown on the gang’s ability to circumvent gun laws to arm members and further its drug trafficking ring.
The FBI’s Northern Connecticut Gang Task Force closed in on Reyes and his operation in 2018 and discovered Enfield heroin addict Norman Klosek was working as a “straw purchaser” to legally purchase guns under his name and then trade or “loan” them to Reyes’ associates in exchange for drugs, officials have said previously.