Cooperation with a sprawling federal corruption investigation helped Rudy Acosta Jr. get a probation-only sentence Wednesday after pleading guilty to lying to FBI agents. On Thursday, Acosta’s son, Rudy III, entered a plea deal with federal prosecutors, hoping his work for the feds can get him out from under a possible life sentence for trafficking millions of dollars worth of heroin and cocaine.
Rudy Acosta III did not attend his father’s sentencing hearing Wednesday, and Acosta Jr. was not in court as his son formally entered a guilty plea to a single count of trafficking cocaine, though in his plea agreement he admitted to numerous sales dating back to the 1990s that totaled more than 450 kilograms of the drug and threatening a customer— who was a DEA informant— whose courier had been caught with a nearly $500,000 shipment in 2015.
