East Haven Man Pleads Guilty To Drug Trafficking Firearm Charge: Feds

EAST HAVEN, CT —Luis Salaman, 20, of East Haven, known as "Louie Benz," on the street, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, according to the Justice Department.

According to U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery, court documents and statements made in court, on September 22, 2020, New Haven police arrested Salaman on an outstanding state arrest warrant. Salaman had gone into a store on the corner of Ferry and Sanford streets in New Haven and, when arrested, had a loaded SIG Sauer 1911 .45 caliber firearm with an obliterated serial number, and heroin and marijuana that he intended to distribute, Avery said.

Salaman, who has been locked up since his Oct. 2, 2020 arrest, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 17, and faces a mandatory five years and a maximum of life in prison, Avery said.

This case, investigated by the ATF and the New Haven Police Department, is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Konstantin Lantsman and Natasha Freismuth.

It's part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.