New Haven Man Sentenced to Three Years in Federal Prison for Distributing Crack

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that CHARLES NICHOLS, 45, of New Haven, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to 36 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for distributing crack cocaine.

This matter stems from a joint law enforcement investigation conducted by the FBI New Haven Safe Streets Task Force, the DEA New Haven Task Force, the New Haven Police Department, and the Hamden Police Department. Through the use of court-authorized wiretaps, investigating officers identified and dismantled a large drug-trafficking organization that was centered in the Newhallville section of New Haven and Hamden and was responsible for the distribution of crack cocaine and cocaine throughout the Greater New Haven area. According to court documents and statements made in court, for a period of approximately two weeks in August and September 2010, NICHOLS purchased distribution quantities of crack cocaine from other members of the drug trafficking organization, and then redistributed some of the crack to others.

On November 10, 2011, NICHOLS pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute cocaine base (“crack cocaine”).

Forty-seven individuals have been charged in federal court with various narcotics offenses as a result of this investigation.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New Haven Safe Streets Task Force (composed of members of members of the New Haven, Ansonia, Milford, Hamden, and East Haven Police Departments, and the Connecticut State Police and the Connecticut Department of Correction), the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Haven Task Force (composed of members of the New Haven, West Haven, Meriden, Ansonia, Hamden, and Branford Police Departments), along with substantial participation by members of the New Haven and Hamden Police Departments. The United States Marshals Service also has assisted the investigation.

The investigation was funded in significant part by the United States Attorney’s Office Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and supported by the Office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods and Anti-Gang programs.

This matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Christopher M. Mattei and Robert M. Spector.