June 11, 2014

Hartford Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing Drugs, Firearm

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that KARL ROYE, also known as “Eagle,” 23, of Hartford, pleaded guilty today before Senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello in Hartford to one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base (crack) and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on September 5, 2013, at approximately 10:22 p.m., the Hartford Police Department’s Shooting Task Force and the FBI’s Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Task Force executed a state search warrant at ROYE’s Holcomb Street residence. As the search team approached the residence, ROYE drove from his house at a high rate of speed. Officers stopped ROYE at the end of the street and seized from him two cell phones and $640 in cash. A search of ROYE’s residence yielded approximately $2,000 in cash and a money counting machine that were found in ROYE’s bedroom. Searchers also found two backpacks that were hidden above a tiled ceiling in the basement. The backpacks revealed quantities of crack cocaine and marijuana packaged for distribution, two digital scales, drug packaging materials, and a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson Model 60 revolver.

A firearms trace on the weapon established that it had been reported to the Hartford Police Department in November 2012 as having been stolen from the residence of its owner.

ROYE has been detained since his arrest on September 5, 2013.

Judge Covello scheduled sentencing for September 10, 2014, at which time ROYE faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years for possessing with intent to distribute narcotics and a consecutive sentence of at least five years of imprisonment for possessing a firearm in furtherance of that crime.

This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Task Force and the Hartford Police Department. The FBI task force includes members of the Hartford Police Department, East Hartford Police Department, Connecticut State Police, and Connecticut Department of Correction. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John H. Durham.