Manchester Man Gets Prison Time In Drug Distrbution Case

MANCHESTER, CT — A Manchester man involved in a Hartford drug trafficking ring is going to prison, a leading prosecutor said.

John H. Durham, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut, said Thursday that 32-year-old Manchester resident Jeffrey Ferry, who goes by the street name of "30," was sentenced a day earlier by U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant in Hartford to 42 months of in prison for drug and gun offenses.

His prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release, Durham added.

According to court documents and statements made in court, the case stems from an investigation conducted by the FBI’s Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Task Force and the Hartford Police Department’s Vice and Narcotics Division into the trafficking of narcotics and associated violence in Hartford’s South End by members and associates of the Almighty Latin Kings Nation.

The investigation, which included court-authorized wiretaps, physical surveillance and controlled purchases of narcotics, revealed that two alleged members of the Latin Kings operated separate drug trafficking organizations that distributed fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and crack cocaine, according to case records.

The organizations used multiple locations to process, package, store and distribute narcotics, and carried firearms in their drug trafficking activities, case records indicate.

Ferry was a member of a drug trafficking organization that operated a "trap house" at 149 Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford as a distribution point for drug customers, according to case records. Ferry delivered drugs to the trap house, and also sold fentanyl to his own customers, Durham said.

On May 22, 2018, someone was shot and seriously wounded in an apparent robbery of the trap house, according to case records.

On June 3, 2018, Ferry and a co-defendant were arrested on state charges after intercepted communications revealed that Ferry had a gun and planned to meet someone to settle a dispute, according to case records. Hartford Police officers stopped a car Ferry was driving on Redding Street and located a loaded 9mm pistol in the car’s glove box, Durham said.

Ferry’s criminal history includes convictions in 2004 for possessing a weapon in a motor vehicle, and in 2006 for criminal possession of a firearm.

Ferry has been detained since his arrest. On Feb. 20, he entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.