United States Attorney
District of Connecticut

PRESS RELEASE

May 16, 2008
 CONTACT:
Tom Carson
Public Information Office
(203) 821-3722
(203) 996-1393 (cell)  

NEW HAVEN MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL PCP DISTRIBUTION CHARGE

Nora R. Dannehy, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MAURICE ARMOND, 44, of George Street, New Haven, pleaded guilty yesterday, May 15, before United States District Judge Christopher F. Droney in Hartford to one count of conspiring to distribute 100 grams or more of phencyclidine (“PCP”).

On March 26, 2008, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging ARMOND and several other individuals with various narcotics offenses involving the distribution of PCP in New Haven and the surrounding area.  The charges against ARMOND stem, in part, from intercepted telephone conversations between him and his customers in February and March 2008.  ARMOND’s cellular telephone was the target of a wiretap investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New Haven Safe Streets Task Force.

ARMOND has been detained since his arrest by Task Force agents on March 14, 2008.

Judge Droney has scheduled sentencing for August 1, 2008, at which time ARMOND faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of five years, a maximum term of imprisonment of 40 years and a fine of up to $2,000,000.

This matter was investigated by the FBI New Haven Safe Streets Task Force, which is composed of representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New Haven Police Department, the Ansonia Police Department, the Milford Police Department, the Hamden Police Department, the East Haven Police Department, the Connecticut State Police and the Connecticut Department of Correction.  This matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert M. Spector.