Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Napoleon Andrade, 32, of Central Falls, who is currently incarcerated while serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for drug trafficking, money laundering, theft of government property and federal firearm violations was enhanced today by 63 months for his role in a March 2010 home invasion in Stamford, Connecticut, announced United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha and Daniel J. Kumor, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

At sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell ordered Andrade to serve 31 months of the newly imposed sentence consecutive to the 10-year sentence he is currently serving. The additional 32 months were ordered to be served concurrently. Andrade pleaded guilty on December 11, 2013, to one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.

According to court records, in 2009 and 2010, Andrade was the target of an unrelated, long-term federal, state and local law enforcement investigation into his suspected drug trafficking activities. During a March 8, 2010, conversation surreptitiously recorded by law enforcement, Andrade discussed his participation in home invasions in Connecticut and New York. Andrade provided significant details of the home invasion in Connecticut which ATF agents used to track down accounts of the incident. The victim of the home invasion, a 78-year-old man who was well known to Stamford Police as being an associate of the Gambino crime family, was bound and blindfolded. According to the victim, the attackers, who gained entrance to home purporting to be deliveryman, stole more than $200,000 worth of jewelry, more than $16,000 in cash and a double-barreled shotgun.

According to information presented to the court, the home invasion was planned in a growing dispute over a loansharking debt that had grown to be in excess of $300,000. Andrade was brought in to provide “muscle” during the home invasion.

Gennaro Mieli, 61, of Niantic, CT., is awaiting trial in U.S. District Court in Providence on an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit robbery and witness intimidation; Stephen Conti, 42, of Swansea, Mass., is awaiting sentencing, having pleaded guilty on September 26, 2013, to a one count indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit robbery.

In August 2011, in unrelated matters, Andrade admitted in court to the facts that were the basis for charges contained in three federal indictments and three informations. The charges were the result of several ATF led investigations, and several joint federal, state and local investigations. Some of the investigations included “sting operations” and the use of electronic surveillance equipment.

According to information presented to the court, in January 2010, Rhode Island State Police became aware of the presence of a kilogram of cocaine hidden under a treadmill in a gym in the Central Falls apartment building in which Andrade lived. Andrade admitted that he made statements, in a conversation monitored by ATF agents, that the cocaine was his.

Additionally, Andrade admitted to the court that in March 2010, he broke into a vehicle in Central Falls which he believed contained 100 grams of sham crack cocaine; $500 in cash; and purported stolen jewelry. The car was placed on a street in Central Falls by ATF agents as part of a “sting operation.”

Andrade also admitted to the court that in April 2010, he provided a fully loaded .357 caliber revolver to a person working with government agents, with the intent that the firearm be used in a “drug-rip” of a kilogram of cocaine from a home in Connecticut.

Andrade also admitted that in December 2009, he and a person working with government agents broke into a storage unit in North Providence that was rented by the ATF. They stole 840 cartons of cigarettes valued at over $30,000, which were owned by the Government. Andrade planned the break-in and provided funds to purchase bolt cutters that were used to open the storage unit.

Andrade also admitted that in December 2009, he sold one pound of marijuana for $1,000 cash to a person working with government agents. An additional fifteen one pound packages of marijuana were observed inside Andrade’s residence at the time of the purchase.

At the time of Andrade’s guilty pleas in August 2011, he admitted to the court that his principal source of income was derived from drug trafficking and other crimes, and that he had committed the crime of money laundering in the purchase of a $42,000 automobile for which he paid cash.

The cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gerard B. Sullivan and Adi Goldstein.

United States Attorney Peter Neronha acknowledged and thanked the Rhode Island State Police, Central Falls Police, Pawtucket Police, Providence Police, North Providence Police, Stamford, CT., Police and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut for their assistance in the investigations and prosecutions of these matters.

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