Gun dealer cops a plea in weapons case

[Judi Lynn]

Gun dealer cops a plea in weapons case
Phil Helsel, Register Staff
02/02/2007

The feds say Frank D’Andrea looked the other way as gangsters and hoodlums bought guns at his store, and even once helped a notorious Bridgeport drug kingpin time his purchases to avoid police attention.

But on Thursday, D’Andrea, 62, of 94 Soundivew Ave., Shelton, avoided most charges in a 12-count indictment by pleading guilty to possession of an unregistered Cobra Streetsweeper semiautomatic shotgun. He could serve up to 10 years in prison, and had faced 40 years on an assortment of charges.

U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O’Connor said that between 2002 and 2004, D’Andrea’s store, D’Andrea’s Gun Case in Stratford, became the second-largest source for all guns recovered in connection with crimes in Connecticut.

At the least, D’Andrea was accused of looking the other way while "straw purchasers" bought guns that they clearly intended to sell or trade to criminals who couldn’t legally buy one.

At worst, D’Andrea allegedly helped notorious Bridgeport gang leader Frankie "The Terminator" Estrada time straw purchases to arm his gang so as not to attract police attention.
(snip/...)

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17798428&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=31007&rfi=6

[Judi Lynn]

1. Out of curiosity I looked up "Frankie "The Enforcer" Estrada," one of his customers

~snip~
On another track, it appears that Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Connecticut had initiated an investigation in August of 1999 into the narcotics trafficking activities of one Frank Estrada. Eventually, separate indictments were returned on November 2, 2000 against Estrada and an associate in drug trafficking, Isaias Soler, by a grand jury empaneled by the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

It appears that Estrada was the head of a large organization engaged in the processing, packaging and distribution of narcotics. Certain individuals serving as lieutenants in the organization delivered packaged narcotics to street-level dealers. These dealers sold the narcotics at various locations within the P.T. Barnum Housing Project in Bridgeport, Connecticut and in other areas of Bridgeport and in other cities in Connecticut, including New Haven and Meriden. The organization obtained wholesale quantities of narcotics, including cocaine and heroin, from supply sources usually located outside the state. The cocaine customarily was converted into cocaine base or "crack" before being packaged for street-level distribution. Members of the organization resorted to violence to maintain the exclusive right to sell narcotics in particular locations. In December, 2000, the grand jury returned a superseding four-count indictment charging Estrada, Soler and twenty-two other members of the Estrada organization with offenses relating to the nefarious activities of the organization.

Early in 2001, Jose Lugo, who was serving a Connecticut state prison sentence, wrote to Assistant United States Attorney Alex Hernandez to advise that he had relevant information pertaining to the Estrada organization. Following the communication, Lugo was interviewed by government agents on a number of occasions. He provided valuable information to the agents and shortly thereafter testified at the trial of various codefendants of Gonzalez.

In his testimony, Lugo described the structure of the organization in great detail and identified a number of individuals who were involved in its activities. He testified about the manner in which the drugs were packaged in small bags, taped and stamped. His testimony included details about the activities of Estrada as head of the organization and of the lieutenants who were responsible for getting the narcotics into the hands of the runners or street sellers. As he described it, the lieutenants were also responsible for collecting the sales proceeds from the runners. Lugo also described the physical form in which the heroin and crack were sold. He identified various locations at which the narcotics were prepared for sale, the places where the narcotics were "stashed," and the steps taken by Estrada to enforce his territorial primacy in the locations where his runners sold drugs.

In his detailed testimony, Lugo provided the names of many of the members of the Estrada organization as well as the part each played in the activities of the organization. Among others, he identified Hector "June Bug" Gonzalez, the name by which he knew appellant. At one point, according to Lugo, "June Bug was in charge of all the lieutenants, mae sure that they was doing their job." Lugo gave further testimony describing the importance of Gonzalez in the operation of the organization. Lugo recalled that he was present with Estrada and Gonzalez in the summer of 1997 when Gonzalez insisted on going to New York City to replenish the organization's supply of heroin. Although Estrada was reluctant to do so, he gave Gonzalez a bag of cash to make the purchase. When Estrada learned that Gonzalez had been arrested in New York in the "sting" cocaine sale arranged by agents of the DEA on June 4, 1997, he immediately proceeded to Gonzalez' apartment and removed a safe. Estrada told Lugo that the safe contained cash, and they transported it to an apartment at another location.
(snip)http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=2nd&navby=case&no=021173v2&exact=1

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One source I saw said he sacrificed a goat. What is that, Santería?

[jody]

2. Sentence should have been much longer.

"Gun store operators are the first line of defense for helping to control the flow of illegal guns onto our streets, and those who blatantly disregard federal firearms possession and reporting laws will be prosecuted," O’Connor said in a statement.

“EIGHTEEN PERCENT OF STATE PRISONERS COMMITTED THEIR CRIMES WHILE ARMED” (Bureau of Justice Statistics)

Inmates serving time in state prisons during 1997 said they obtained their guns from the following sources in percentages:

  Purchased from a retail store       8.3 percent
  Purchased at a pawn shop            3.8	 
  Purchased at a flea market          1.0	 
  Purchased in a gun show             0.7	 
  Obtained from friends or family    39.6	 
  Got on the street/illegal source   39.2

The percentage of inmates who bought their guns from a retail store fell from 21 percent in 1991, when the last such survey was conducted to 14 percent in 1997. At the same time the percentage who obtained their firearms from family or friends rose from 34 percent in 1991 to 40 percent in 1997.

The only way laws can deter crime is through fear of punishment and presidents over the past few decades have not aggressively enforced nor prosecuted crimes committed in violation of 18 USC 922.

IMO D’Andrea’s sentence should have been much longer perhaps the full 40 years.