East Haven Police Part Of Team That Sends Drug Dealer To Prison

NEW HAVEN, CT — Frank Carr, a 53-year-old Hamden man, was sent to federal prison Monday to serve more than 10 years for drug trafficking, a case that East Haven police helped to investigate.

This is his third federal conviction.

According to court documents and statements made in court, this matter stems from an investigation headed by the FBI’s New Haven Safe Streets/Gang Task Force and New Haven Police Department that targeted drug trafficking and related acts of violence by members, former members and associates of the “Island Brothers” street gang in New Haven.

The investigation, which included court-authorized wiretaps and controlled purchases of narcotics, also revealed that the drug trafficking organization had established a base of operation in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The investigation subsequently identified a second drug trafficking network that involved the large-scale distribution of heroin.

Investigators developed information that, in March 2019, while Carr was on federal supervised release, he provided a kilogram of cocaine to the leader of one of the drug trafficking networks. In May and June 2019, investigators made multiple controlled purchases of cocaine and crack from Carr, including a purchase of approximately 78 grams of crack from Carr in exchange for $3,000 on May 23, 2019.

On July 9, 2019, a grand jury in New Haven returned a 15-count indictment charging Carr and 24 other individuals with federal narcotics offenses related to the distribution of crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin. Two defendants were added in a superseding indictment that was returned on November 25, 2019. In a subsequent superseding indictment, Carr was charged with attempted obstruction of justice for allegedly asking a potential witness in this case to provide false exculpatory information about Carr.

Carr has been detained since his arrest on July 10, 2019. On October 28, 2020, he pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute, and distribution of, 28 grams or more of cocaine base (“crack”).

In December 1996, he was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. In January 2013, he was sentenced to 63 months of imprisonment for distributing heroin. Carr’s criminal history also includes state convictions for manslaughter with a firearm, weapons possession and drug offenses.

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s New Haven Safe Streets/Gang Task Force, New Haven, East Haven, Milford and Hamden police departments, Connecticut State Police, Connecticut Department of Correction and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.