Indictment Charges Hartford Man with Gun and Drug Offenses

John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that a grand jury in Hartford has returned a four-count superseding indictment charging RAHEEN THOMPSON, 38, of Hartford, with firearm and drug offenses.

The superseding indictment was returned on April 18, 2018.  THOMPSON appeared yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah A. L. Merriam in New Haven and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

As alleged in the indictment and court documents, in the early morning of August 7, 2016, Hartford Police officers arrested THOMPSON after they encountered him in a parked car outside of a nightclub in possession of a loaded .380 caliber pistol and distribution quantities of marijuana and pentylone.

The indictment alleges that THOMPSON has been previously convicted in federal court of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base (“crack”), and in state court of multiple felony offenses.

It is a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce.

The indictment charges THOMPSON with one count of possession with intent to distribute pentylone, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years; one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years; one count of possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years, and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, an offense that carries mandatory consecutive sentence of at least five years of imprisonment.

THOMPSON has been detained since his arrest.

U.S. Attorney Durham stressed that an indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial at which it is the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

This investigation is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Violent Crime Task Force and the Hartford PoliceDepartment.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Stolfi Collins.