CRIME SOLVERS TIPLINE:  860-527-TIPS

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:  Friday, February 8, 2008

OPERATION STONE COLD TARGETS FIFTY STREET LEVEL DRUG DEALERS IN HARTFORD

(Hartford) - At approximately 5:00 a.m. today, Friday, February 8th, members of the Hartford Police Department's Vice and Narcotics, Major Crimes, and Intelligence Divisions, and the HPD's Emergency Response Team launched Operation Stone Cold, a citywide sweep targeting street level drug dealers.

The multi-agency investigation, led by Hartford Police Vice and Narcotics Commander Luis A. Rodriguez, included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Hartford State's Attorney's Office, the State of Connecticut Department of Corrections, the Connecticut Intelligence Center (including the Western Region Intelligence Liaison Officer from the Wolcott Police Department), spanned several weeks.  More than fifty (50) drug transactions were documented and arrest warrants sought for those individuals. 

In commenting on Operation Stone Cold Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts said, "Historically the warmer weather brings about an increase in shooting incidents that, for the most part, stem from narcotic related activity.  Operation Stone Cold is a prevention effort by the Hartford Police Department and its law enforcement partners to avert such a surge in drug related violence.   We are being proactive now to take the steps necessary to ensure a 2008 safe summer.  I want to commend HPD Vice and Narcotics Commander Lieutenant Luis Rodriguez, his detectives, and all law enforcement personnel and agencies that participated and supported this operation.  As a result of this investigation, and their actions today, Hartford streets are safer for us all."

More than seventy-five (75) law enforcement officers participated in Operation Stone Cold, with seven teams of approximately six officers spreading out across the city to apprehend the targeted street level drug dealers.  Operations were coordinated from a command post in the Hartford Police Department utilizing state of the art GIS technology to track suspect locations and the progress of the operation.  

By early afternoon thirty-seven of the fifty targeted had been taken into custody on drug related charges including possession of narcotics and possession of narcotics with intent to sell. 

Click here for PDF map of Operation Stone Cold.

Click here for photo of guns, drugs, ammunition and money seized during Operation Stone Cold.

Click here for roster of arrestees.

Click here for mugshots of arrestees, Part One and Part Two.

-###-

Contact:   Nancy Mulroy, Public Information Officer, Hartford Police Department,  (860) 757-4021
Visit www.hartford.gov for more Hartford Police News
Return to Press Releases
HPD News Home