RI man tried smuggling 22 pounds of heroin into Canada via kayak. Now he’s heading to prison

Freddy Rodriguez was planning to use a kayak to rendezvous with a boat on Lake Champlain, according to court records

• Freddy Rodriguez, 40, of West Warwick, was sentenced to 57 months in prison for attempting to smuggle heroin into Canada, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.
• Border Patrol agents apprehended Rodriguez near Lake Champlain as he prepared to kayak 10 kilograms of heroin to a waiting boat, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
• Rodriguez was caught with the heroin, and his truck, which contained a hidden compartment, was seized, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

BURLINGTON, VT – A Rhode Island man who tried smuggling heroin into Canada via kayak on Lake Champlain was sentenced to 57 months in prison on Monday, July 21, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.

Freddy Rodriguez, 40, of West Warwick, previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to export heroin from the United States to Quebec, Canada, in September 2023, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

According to court records, Rodriguez had rented a house near Lake Champlain’s Missisquoi Bay in Highgate, Vermont, about 1½ miles from the border and was planning to deliver 10 kilograms of heroin to a power boat that had motored south from Canada when Border Patrol agents foiled the plan.

At about 12:05 a.m. Sept. 19, 2023, Border Patrol agents were hiding in the brush around a property on Duck Point Road “to observe possible illicit maritime traffic” when they saw a man later identified as Rodriguez “carrying what appeared to be at least one small bag,” Border Patrol Agent Brian Wilda said in an affidavit.

Rodriguez sat down on the beach and appeared to make and receive several phone calls, Wilda wrote.

Meanwhile, at about 1:45 a.m., the Border Patrol agents received word from their communications dispatch center that a boat had been detected via remote surveillance equipment traveling south on Lake Champlain across the border, Wilda wrote.

The boat continued south until reaching the area where they were watching Rodriguez “and made a sharp turn to the east (toward shore),” although the agents couldn’t see any running lights on the vessel, Wilda wrote.

“As the vessel turned east, agents observed the male subject on the beach remove objects from one bag and place them into another bag,” Wilda wrote. “The male subject then began to drag a kayak from the beach to the water, facing the direction from which the vessel was approaching.”

That’s when the Border Patrol agents ran from the woods and confronted Rodriquez.

“The subject attempted to abscond by running, but after approximately 40 feet he tripped, fell, and dropped the bag he was carrying,” Wilda wrote. “Agents detained the male subject and seized the bag, walking both back up to the property located above the shoreline.”

“Upon reaching property, the subject was met by additional agents arriving from other vantage points,” Wilda wrote. “I and other agents immediately recognized the detained subject as Freddy Rodriguez, an individual known to us from previous marijuana-smuggling events we had investigated in New Hampshire, in the far eastern portion of the Swanton Sector.”

Laboratory testing later showed that Rodriguez was carrying about 10 kilograms, or more than 22 pounds, of heroin, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

“Based on text messages recovered from Rodriguez’s phone, he appeared to have expected to receive a large quantity of cash and MDMA (ecstasy) in exchange for the controlled substances he was attempting to deliver,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Agents also searched and seized Rodriguez’s Ford F150 truck, which was later found to have “a sophisticated locking trap – a void used for secretly transporting large quantities of drugs or currency – under the truck’s rear seats, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Because of poor weather, the agents weren’t able to stop the boat.

Chief U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss also sentenced Rodriguez to three years of supervised release after his prison term.