A Cranston man arrested in 2011 on various drug trafficking charges was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Monday.
Abel Perez, 31, was arrested in September after a five-month long investigation.
Investigators said they watched Perez of Cranston walk into his apartment empty handed and come out a short time later holding a paper bag filled with heroin.
Perez, 30, placed the bag on the front seat of his car and was immediately surrounded by agents. A search of his vehicle turned up a half-kilo of heroin and a loaded .22 caliber handgun in a secret compartment behind his radio.
Police later found more heroin, $7,000 cash and a .357 revolver in a subsequent search of his two residences in Cranston and Johnston.
The arrest caps a months-long investigation during which Perez sold various amounts of heroin valued between $2,500 and $4,000 to undercover operatives beginning in April of 2011.
Law enforcement agents assigned to the DEA Drug Task Force in Rhode Island had arranged a “significant quantity of heroin from Perez for $9,200” that Perez was to deliver at the time of his arrest.
Perez was charged with possession with intent to distribute and the distribution of heroin, being a felon in possession of a firearm and being in possession of a firearm in the furtherance of drug trafficking offense.
State court records indicate Perez has been through criminal court on 12 individual cases.
He pleaded guilty in February.