Cocaine Dealer Gets Two Years in Union Square Post Office Drug Case

Editor's note: The following is from the Massachusetts office of the United States Attorney. Zuluaga pleaded guilty in connection to a cocaine distribution operation. Two postal employees from the Union Square post office also pleaded guilty in the case.

BOSTON - William Zuluaga, who last resided in Revere, was sentenced today on charges stemming from his involvement in a drug conspiracy with two former United States Postal Service employees.

Zuluaga, 58, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for his involvement in a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine. A Colombian national, he faces deportation after serving his sentence.

Zuluaga, along with co-conspirators Gerard Harrington, John Thibedeau, and Sean Williamson, were indicted in September 2011. Harrington and Williamson are former Postal Service employees who worked out of the Somerville Post Office.

The government’s evidence included video and audio recordings of the four co- conspirators conducting their drug transactions beginning in May 2011, and continued on at least five different occasions through Sept. 30, 2011, the date of the Zuluaga’s arrest. Zuluaga confessed to the crimes and told agents he had been dealing drugs with Thibedeau for several years. A search of Zuluaga’s apartment revealed a large quantity of cocaine and cash, as well as drug paraphernalia and fake identifications.

U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Rafael Medina, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Area Field Office made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia M. Carris of Ortiz’s Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit.

More on the Union Square cocaine case