ANSONIA – An Ansonia man connected to a drug trafficking ring was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison July 24.

Everard Boothe, 41, pleaded guilty in April to possession with intent to distribute more than 40 grams of fentanyl. He’s been detained since August 2023, when he was arrested on related state charges, according to a press release from the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

According to the release and court documents, police began investigating Boothe after a related investigation tied him to a ring of drug dealers in the Bridgeport area. Among those dealers was Christian Pichardo, a Hamden man who was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier this month.

“During the investigation, investigators intercepted calls and text messages between Boothe, Pichardo, their associates, and their drug customers over court-authorized wiretaps, made controlled purchases of narcotics, and seized drugs from members of the conspiracy and their drug customers,” the release says.

Police and FBI agents searched Boothe’s Woodbridge Avenue home on Aug. 3, 2023, where they found more than 50 grams of fentanyl and heroin, drug packaging materials, and a round of 9-millimeter ammunition, according to court documents. He was arrested on state charges that day while the federal investigation continued.

Boothe was then indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2024, along with seven other people either suspected or convicted of trafficking narcotics.

Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that Boothe was near the center of a drug ring, along with Pichardo.

“Boothe was one of the most involved, most trusted members of Pichardo’s crew,” according to the memo, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Peck.

In wiretapped phone conversations between Boothe and Pichardo, Peck said the two discussed drug dealing on a daily basis, including conversations on drug purity and on mixing fentanyl and heroin.

“By the time of the wiretap in mid-2023, Pichardo was fronting Boothe thousands of dollars in drugs,” Peck wrote.

The memo says that Boothe has a nearly uninterrupted string of run-ins with the law, dating all the way back to his childhood. It points to his prior convictions, which include assault on a public safety official and criminal possession of a firearm.

“Boothe trafficked deadly drugs for a living, and this latest case against him is the next in a long line of prior convictions for weapons possession, violence, drug distribution, and other offenses,” the memo states.

William H. Paetzold, the attorney representing Boothe, said in a separate sentencing memorandum that Boothe had grown up around violence and that violence shaped him. It references a childhood encounter with police, where Boothe said he was held at gunpoint in his home by an officer who thought his Nintendo controller was a dangerous object.

“Shootings and open market drug dealings were a daily occurrence and certainly clouded his sense of right and wrong,” Paetzold’s memo says.

Paetzold had asked for a sentence of 77 months, while prosecutors argued for 137 months.

“This case is not Everard’s first rodeo, so he understands and accepts the Court’s obligation to impose an appropriate sentence to deter him and others from engaging in this destructive behavior in the future,” the defense’s memo says.

Prosecutors said a lengthy sentence was necessary, since Boothe hadn’t been deterred by his previous arrests, convictions, or time in prison.

“The lure of financial reward from drug trafficking is strong; a substantial sentence is needed to countermand the attraction,” the prosecution’s memo says.

Boothe was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea. Shea recommended incarceration at FCI Danbury, according to minutes from the sentencing hearing.