ANSONIA — Three men accused of dealing cocaine 24 – 7 out of a High Street home will serve multi-year sentences in federal prison after taking plea deals in a case investigated by a federal drug task force.
According to court documents, the drug dealers would bury three kilograms of cocaine at a time in the backyard of the home. Over time, they would remove a few ounces and cook it into crack before packaging and selling it to customers.
Cops from Ansonia and Derby as well as federal agents spent months last year developing informants, making “controlled purchases,” and tailing the suspects as they sold illegal drugs throughout the Valley.
At one point investigators even called in the help of a DEA airplane to follow a vehicle used by the organization.
Authorities also suspect the group is connected to several recent shootings, though no specific charges have been filed linking them to any street violence.
Two of the dealers — 30-year-old Jason Walker and 22-year-old Jacob Freeman — were sentenced in federal court last month to 36 and 30 months behind bars, respectively, to charges of distributing crack cocaine.
Walker allegedly ran the group’s day-to-day operations from 87 High St. in Ansonia.
A third dealer, Marquice Rumley, pleaded guilty in March and will likely be sentenced to between 46 and 57 months behind bars, according to a plea deal in the case.
According to an affidavit filed in federal court by Ansonia Police Officer Joshua Roussel, the three men led a drug dealing organization formerly headed by Keyshon Zimmerman.
Several leaders of the organization were sent to prison after a 2012 investigation resulted in cops raiding 11 addresses tied to the group.
Zimmerman is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in connection to a 2014 Waterbury shooting.
According to Roussel’s affidavit, police discovered last year that the drug dealing organization “was again operating in a 24/7 fashion distributing crack cocaine and heroin in the Naugatuck Valley.”
“The group is also under investigation for their ties to several recent shootings,” Roussel wrote.
The affidavit names one of Zimmerman’s chief lieutenants as the group’s new kingpin, but says he “has stepped away from the day-to-day street level operations” and was not charged in the case.
The affidavit says Walker, Freeman, and Rumley would work in shifts passing around the same cell phone to answer calls from customers and arrange drug deals.
Investigators used informants and undercover officers to make several “controlled purchases” of drugs from the men at locations in Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, and Shelton.
The three men were arrested last November on federal drug dealing charges.
Freeman pleaded guilty Feb. 27 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, cocaine.
Walker and Rumley pleaded guilty to the same charge March 12 and March 29, respectively.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer sentenced Walker to 36 months behind bars June 19 in federal court in New Haven. The judge sentenced Freeman to 30 months behind bars June 20.
Rumley’s sentencing is scheduled for July 25.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Haven Task Force and the Ansonia and Derby Police Departments, U.S. Attorney John Durham said in a prepared statement. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Courtney Kaoutzanis.
