Hartford Crack Dealer Sentenced to More Than Six Years in Federal Prison
| U.S. Attorney’s Office March 06, 2014 |
Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that Rakent Bunkley, also known as “Kent” and “Kent Street,” 25, of Hartford, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to 80 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for distributing crack cocaine.
This matter stems from Operation Vinefield, a joint law enforcement investigation headed by the FBI’s Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Task Force targeting narcotics trafficking and gang violence in Hartford’s North End. As a result of the nine-month investigation, 38 individuals were charged with various offenses related to the distribution of crack cocaine and the unlawful possession and dealing of firearms in and around Hartford.
According to court documents and statements made in court, one of the main targets of the investigation was Dementrius Nave, a member of the AVE street gang with a lengthy criminal history. Court-authorized wiretaps of Nave’s phones, coordinated motor vehicle stops and seizures, and physical surveillance confirmed that Nave and his associates, including Bunkley, conspired to distribute crack cocaine and other narcotics in Hartford’s Northeast neighborhood. Bunkley is a member of the Forty Deuce set of the AVE.
Bunkley’s criminal history includes a state felony conviction stemming from a carjacking robbery. In September 2009, he was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for that offense. Approximately four months after he was released in October 2011, he was intercepted on Nave’s phone conspiring to sell crack cocaine.
Bunkley has been detained since his arrest on February 13, 2012. On November 5, 2013, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base (crack cocaine).
Nave has pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.
This matter has been investigated by the FBI’s Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Task Force, the Connecticut State Police, the Hartford Police Department, and the Connecticut Department of Correction. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian P. Leaming.