2023-09-23 11:01:24
An East Hartford man was sentenced this week to eight years in prison for “multiple” gun and drug possession and trafficking crimes, according to federal authorities.
Justin Gay, 27, also was sentenced this week by U.S. District Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to five years of supervised release, according to federal authorities.
Authorities, citing both court documents and statements made in court, said Gay’s associate, Daniel Vazquez, shot a “rival drug dealer who was driving a car at the intersection of Tolland Street and Moore Avenue in East Hartford” on July 6, 2016. Vazquez was arrested and a search of his residence revealed “a Ruger LC93 9mm handgun, which he had used in the shooting, and a Taurus 9mm handgun. The two firearms were traced to Minot, North Dakota,” federal authorities said in a statement.
“The investigation revealed that Gay, Vazquez, and others trafficked firearms from North Dakota to Connecticut,” federal authorities said in the statement. “In late June 2016, Gay, Vazquez, and others traveled to Minot where they purchased, sometimes with counterfeit currency, firearms from sellers who had advertised the guns for sale on a website.”
Authorities said Gay and Vazquez then brought five firearms from North Dakota to Connecticut. Two of the firearms were found in Vazquez’s residence on July 6, 2016. Several “trafficked firearms” also were used in shootings in and around Hartford, federal authorities said in the statement.
East Hartford police arrested Gay in 2016 on state charges following he sold marijuana to an individual and was found in possession of one of the handguns he had obtained in North Dakota, federal authorities said,
In 2019 he pleaded guilty in federal court to possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and conspiracy to unlawfully transport firearms in interstate commerce, federal authorities said.
Gay, who had been in custody while awaiting sentencing, was released on bond in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, federal authorities said.
On June 14, 2021, Gay was arrested once more in 2021 when an investigation into drug trafficking by his roommate, Alexander Belen, led to a search of Gay’s vehicle, federal authorities said in the statement. “The search revealed a loaded 9mm handgun fitted with a ‘sear switch’ that made the firearm fully automatic, a separate 50 round drum magazine, another loaded 9mm handgun, and distribution quantities of fentanyl, cocaine, and crack.”
Gay pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, receipt of a firearm by a person under indictment, and commission of offenses while on release on April 20, 2023.
Vazquez was sentenced to 84 months in prison in 2019. Belen has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
The drug trafficking investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Hartford Task Force, authorities said.
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