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U.S. Attorney Daly announces indictments.
A joint city-federal investigation has nabbed the alleged leaders of a city drug gang believed to be responsible for six separate murders and another five shootings.
Officials Thursday afternoon announced the indictments of six alleged members of the gang — called the Red Side Guerilla Brims, a New Haven-based sect of the Bloods — federal murder, racketeering, firearms, narcotics and money laundering charges
The indictment comes after a nearly two-year investigation called “Operation Red Side” and conducted by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the New Haven Police Department. The operation included a series of controlled narcotics purchases and firearm seizures in Connecticut and Bangor, Maine.
“Members of this gang transported [heroin and] crack cocaine from New Haven to Bangor [Maine], sold the drugs in and around Bangor, and transmitted some of the profits back to New Haven through wire transfers,” U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly said during a press conference at her Church Street office Thursday afternoon. “This conspiracy also included the straw purchase and illegal acquisition of firearms, those guns were brought from Maine back to New Haven and used by gang members.”
Daly said those firearms were used to commit six murders, four attempted murders and numerous other crimes in New Haven. In February, federal prosecutors in Maine obtained an indictment against 11 people allegedly connected to the gang, including one of its leaders and several associates from Connecticut, on a variety of charges for the distribution of narcotics and firearms and the transportation of both between New Haven and Bangor.
Through the Operation Red Side investigation, local and federal enforcement agents in New Haven “connected the dots” on cold case homicides and unsolved attempted murders, mostly from 2011, back to the some of the same gang members indicted in Maine. That investigation led a federal grand jury in New Haven to return a 34-count indictment of the six gang members, including the same leader who was indicted in Maine, for “engaging in a pattern of racketeering that included murder, robbery, assault, firearms narcotics and money laundering offenses.”
Four of the six are charged with murder, and face life in prison, or the death penalty if they are found guilty. The other two face life in prison.
Three of the gang members were arrested Thursday morning and remain in custody, according to Daley. One member was already in state prison on a parole violation. Another member named in the indictment is already serving a 108-month sentence on a conviction that came out of another joint law enforcement investigation called “Operation Bloodline.” One gang member is still being sought by police.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office released the following list of shootings allegedly committed by this gang:
“• On February 23, 2011, an individual was shot and wounded in New Haven.
“• On March 18, 2011, Derrick Suggs was shot and killed in New Haven.
“• On March 29, 2011, an individual was shot and wounded in New Haven.
“• On April 20, 2011, Kevin Lee was shot and killed in New Haven.
“• On June 24, 2011, Donnell Allick was shot and killed in New Haven.
“• On September 19, 2011, Darrick Cooper was shot and killed in Hamden.
“• On October 21, 2011, an individual was shot in the face in New Haven.
“• On December 22, 2011, an individual was shot in the face in New Haven.
“• On December 23, 2011, Joseph Zargo was shot and killed in New Haven.
“• On March 19, 2012, Donald Bolden was shot and killed in New Haven.
“• On December 23, 2014, an individual was assaulted with a firearm in New Haven.”
Finally a crime cracked.....good work.
Also I am grateful to the police for their work in Wooster Sq. They caught 2 burglars this week. I cant wait to meet Davis as I have just finished reading ZeroZeroZero.