The Drug Enforcement Agency announced charges against 105 individuals in the New Haven, Conn., area as a result of “Operation Bloodline,” a joint law enforcement investigation lead by the DEA New Haven Task Force targeting drug trafficking and gang violence.
Ninety suspects have been arrested, according to a Justice Department news release, with 15 still at large after a year-long investigation that used 22 court-authorized wiretaps, physical surveillance, controlled buys of narcotics, search warrants and seizures of drugs and weapons.
New Haven federal grand juries returned six indictments targeting 101 defendants with various crimes related to distributing cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana and oxycodone, the unlawful possession of firearms and ammo, and the use of firearms to further drug trafficking crimes in and around New Haven.
In spring 2011, the New Haven DEA Task Force, along with the New Haven and Hamden police departments, analyzed criminal data and found the Dwight-Kensington (known as “the Tre”) neighborhood and the New Haven neighborhood as focal points to reduce drug trafficking and violence in the city. They also discovered that the Bloods street gang was heavily present in “the Tre” and the Island Brothers street gang was heavily present in New Haven, and that most crimes in these areas stemmed from drug trafficking.
The indictments for all 105 defendants have been unsealed in court. The operation was also conducted with the help of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Connecticut State Police; the U.S. Marshals Service, the Connecticut State Police and police departments from West Haven, North Haven, Branden, Ansonia, Milford, Hartford, New Britain, North Branford, Stratford and Meridan.
The case is being prosecuted by Connecticut Assistant U.S. Attorneys S. Dave Vatti and Marc Silverman.
