Former GPD Officer Sentenced In Illegal Guns Case: Prosecutor

NEW HAVEN, CT — A former Greenwich police officer was sentenced by a U.S. District Judge on Thursday to six months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for unlawful possession and transfer of five firearms on behalf of his drug dealer, according to a news release from Leonard C. Boyle, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Joseph Ryan, 58, of Trumbull, is released on a $100,000 bond, and is required to report to prison on Sept. 15, 2021. He must also pay a $5,000 fine.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Ansonia, Conn. police executed a state search warrant at an address in Ansonia on April 27, 2018 in order to find 12 guns that were registered to a pistol permit holder who lived there. Investigators could only find five firearms during the search. The guns were taken to the Ansonia Police Department for safekeeping.

Boyle said Ryan, who was a Greenwich police officer at the time, went to the Ansonia Police Department on April 3, 2019 and took custody of the five guns.

In August and September 2019, according to the news release, members of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the New Haven Police Department made controlled purchases of four guns from Malique Martin of Ansonia. Boyle stated that three of the four guns were the same weapons that Ryan took from Ansonia a few months earlier.

An investigation showed that Ryan, who was addicted to heroin, transferred the guns to someone who helped facilitate drug deals between Ryan and a heroin supplier. Some of the guns were then given to Martin, Boyle said.

Ryan was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on Feb. 21, 2020. On April 12 of this year, he pleaded guilty to one count of possession of firearms by an unlawful user of a controlled substance.

Martin previously pleaded guilty to one count of dealing firearms without a license and one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, according to Boyle. On June 16, 2020, he was sentenced to 12 months and one day of imprisonment.