NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: May 7, 2004
 

HPD Vice Squad and Emergency Response Team seize Guns and Drugs at 87-89 Baltimore Street; Shut down Illegal Gambling Operation.

(Hartford) - On May 5, 2004, members of the Hartford Police Department's Vice Squad, supported by Hartford Police Department Emergency Response Team, executed a high risk search and seizure warrant at 87-89 Baltimore Street, Hartford. 

Based on information from the community the location had been identified as the site of a possible illegal gambling operation and illegal sale of alcohol on the premises.  During the search and seizure, Hartford Police seized approximately fourteen (14) pounds of marijuana, $14,600 in U.S. Currency, one Taurus 380 Caliber Handgun with ammunition, one Rugar 9mm Handgun, with ammunition, one Enfield 45 Caliber Machine Gun, with ammunition, drug paraphernalia and devices, gambling paraphernalia and devices, and fifteen (15) cases of assorted beer. 

Eighteen arrests were made as a result of the operation, for charges ranging from Criminal Use of a Firearm, Professional Gambling, Unauthorized Sale of liquor, Possession of a Controlled Substance With Intent to Sell (PWITS), to Interfering with a Search Warrant.  Click here for a listing of arrestees and their charges.

In commenting in the operations, Vice Squad Supervisor, Sergeant Franco Sanzo, stated, "This operation should serve as a wake-up call to all those individuals operating illegal gambling establishments in our city that their presence will not be tolerated.  As evidenced by this operation, such establishments attract not only gambling, but pose an even greater threat to public safety in that they also attract drugs and guns. With the help of the community, we will find them and shut them down."

Contact:   Nancy Mulroy, Public Information Officer, Hartford Police Department,  (860) 543-8746
Visit www.hartford.gov for more Hartford Police News
End.
HPD News Home