HARTFORD, Connecticut — A Bronx woman who cut off her GPS monitoring equipment while out on bond and stayed a fugitive for more than 16 months has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for her part in delivering two kilograms of fentanyl from New York to a meeting spot in Milford, Connecticut. U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver sentenced Winifer Acosta Jimenez, 32, of the Bronx, New York, to 72 months of imprisonment followed by two years of supervised release on Tuesday, November 3. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut, led by U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan, announced the sentence on Wednesday, November 4.
The sentence closes a case that began in February 2023, when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arranged the controlled purchase of two kilograms of fentanyl from what prosecutors describe as a wholesale supplier of narcotics with multiple distribution points in the northeastern United States. According to court documents and statements made in court, Acosta Jimenez and her co-defendant, Ovidalis Jimenez Pujols, transported the two kilograms from New York to a meeting location in Milford — a city on Connecticut's Long Island Sound shore, on the Interstate 95 corridor between New Haven and Bridgeport — and were arrested there on February 22, 2023.
The numbers in the case
A federal grand jury in New Haven indicted both defendants on January 23, 2024, charging conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl — an offense that carries a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 40 years in prison. Acosta Jimenez was arrested on the federal charges on January 31, 2024, pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $100,000 bond with GPS monitoring while she awaited trial.
The bond, the cut monitor, and 16 months on the run
On July 31, 2024, prosecutors say, Acosta Jimenez removed her GPS monitoring equipment and absconded. She remained a fugitive for more than 16 months. She was located and arrested in New York on December 18, 2025, and has been detained ever since. On February 3, 2026, she pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge — conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl. The guilty plea, not a trial, is what Judge Oliver sentenced her on this week.
Her co-defendant's case ended earlier. Jimenez Pujols pleaded guilty on November 26, 2024, and on February 19, 2025, Judge Oliver sentenced him to 48 months of imprisonment for the same fentanyl trafficking conspiracy. Acosta Jimenez's 72-month term is two years longer than her co-defendant's — a gap that follows the separate path her case took after she removed the monitor and fled, although the U.S. Attorney's announcement does not break down how the court weighed each factor at sentencing.
The charge in this case was built on the federal threshold of 40 grams or more of fentanyl, which triggers a five-year mandatory minimum. The amount the pair actually transported to Milford, prosecutors say, was two kilograms — fifty times that threshold. Acosta Jimenez's six-year sentence sits above the mandatory minimum and well below the 40-year maximum the indictment carried.
Who investigated, and who prosecuted
The matter was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with the assistance of the Connecticut State Police and the West Haven Police Department, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephanie T. Levick and Nathan J. Guevremont. The victim of the scheme, in the government's framing, was the public exposed to a wholesale quantity of fentanyl moving along the New York–Connecticut corridor: two kilograms is a distribution-level amount, not a personal-use quantity, and the delivery was to a buyer the DEA had arranged as part of its controlled purchase.
What happens next
Acosta Jimenez has been in custody since her December 18, 2025 arrest in New York, and the sentence imposed is 72 months of imprisonment, after which she will serve two years of supervised release under the federal court's supervision. The U.S. Attorney's announcement does not set out a separate surrender date — she is already detained — and it does not state how much credit the Bureau of Prisons will apply for the time she has already served; that calculation is made administratively from the judgment. Her co-defendant's 48-month sentence, imposed in February 2025, is already running its course in the same district's case.