Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary E. Rogers said at the plea hearing the government could prove that, in January 2006, agents with a drug trafficking task force monitored conversations between Bernard, in Providence, and Fernando Gonzalez-Ramirez, in Colorado

They talked about the price of cocaine that Gonzalez-Ramirez wanted to sell to Bernard, the U.S. Attorney's office said. They agreed on $19,000 per kilogram, and Gonzalez-Ramirez said a shipment would arrive in Providence within a few days.

Agensts saw a car on Jan. 30 last year with Colorado license plates outside California Liquors, a store on Union Avenue that Bernard ran. The agents said they followed the car to a warehouse on Hathaway Street.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents said that later that day they seized from the warehouse 11 packages, each containing a half-kilogram of cocaine. Bernard was arrested as was the driver of the Colorado car, Adalberto Bejarano-Gonzalez, who is a cousin of Gonzalez-Ramirez.

After additional investigation, federal agents arrested Gonzalez-Ramirez in Colorado in August 2006.

In January, Bejarano-Gonzalez was sentenced to 37 months in prison after pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to possessing with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.

In February, a jury found Gonzales-Ramirez, 34, guilty of conspiracy to traffic in five kilograms or more of cocaine. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi sentenced him last month to 20 years in prison.

Federal agents said they also seized nearly $100,000 in cash: $9,300 from a home in West Warwick, $70,500 from California Liquors, and $20,000 that Bernard’s wife turned over to the FBI. She was not charged.