Cheyne Mazza, a 29-year-old Oxford man accused of running a drug operation with his sister and two other men, faces at least 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to a single criminal charge in federal court Wednesday.
Mazza will be sentenced Aug. 5.
Mazza, his sister Sterling, along with Ansonia residents Joseph Cassetti and James Canavan, operated marijuana grow houses at two houses on Root Avenue in Ansonia and a third house on Pawnee Road in Oxford.
They ran the operation from 2008 until 2010, federal prosecutors said.
A grand jury indicted Mazza and his alleged crew back in June 2010, after authorities raided several properties connected to them and recovered large amounts of cash and drugs.
The indictment doesn’t list the specifics of how the crew operated, but court documents indicate a slew of law enforcement agencies were directly involved in the investigation, including the agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Ansonia Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, and the Westchester County Department of Public Safety in New York.
Cheyne Mazza pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute 1,000 or more marijuana plants.
Sterling Mazza, Cassetti and Canavan have each pleaded guilty to one count of the same crime.
The Oxford property was owned by Cassetti, according to prosecutors, and rented to Mazza.
Cassetti is a grandfather in his 60s — and a former microbiologist with a master’s degree in education, according to court documents.
Two additional defendants were charged as a result of the investigation.
Philip Negron of Derby and Gary Eichensehr of Seymour have each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to structure financial transactions at a domestic financial institution to evade federal reporting requirements. All await sentencing.
Negron and Eichensehr set up bank accounts to hide cash made from marijuana sales, prosecutors said.
Between October and November 2009, the defendants made some 18 deposits into a JP Morgan bank account totaling more than $100,000. Each deposit was done in less than $10,000 increments to avoid federal reporting requirements.
