Firearm Conviction Gets East Haven Man 5 Year Prison Term: Feds

EAST HAVEN, CT —A 20-year-old man from East Haven has been sentenced to serve five years in federal prison for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut said.

Luis Salaman will serve 60 months followed by five years of supervised release, according to U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery.

According to Avery, court documents and statements made in court, on September 22, 2020, New Haven Police officers arrested Salaman on an outstanding state arrest warrant after he entered a store on the corner of Ferry Street and Sanford Street in New Haven.

At the time of his arrest, Salaman possessed a loaded Sig Sauer 1911 .45 caliber firearm with an obliterated serial number, and heroin and marijuana that he intended to distribute, Avery said.

The investigation also revealed that, in the summer of 2020, Salaman provided marijuana to an individual in exchange for two handguns, prosecutors noted.

Salaman has been detained since his federal arrest on October 2, 2020. He pleaded guilty on July 14, 2022.

This matter was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the New Haven Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Konstantin Lantsman and Natasha Freismuth.

This case is 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.