WATERBURY, CT—D’Andre Burrus, also known as “Dopeman,” a 30-year-old member of a violent street gang in Waterbury, has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley handed down the sentence on Tuesday in Bridgeport, following Burrus’s conviction for his role in the gang’s criminal activities. After serving his prison term, Burrus will undergo three years of supervised release.
The sentencing was announced by a cohort of law enforcement officials, including Vanessa Roberts Avery, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Robert Fuller, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s New Haven Division. The case stemmed from a wide-ranging investigation into drug trafficking and violent crimes in Waterbury, specifically targeting the 960 gang, to which Burrus belonged.
Burrus had pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy on March 4. His criminal activities included trafficking heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine. He also confessed to conspiring to murder rival gang members in retaliation for the death of a 960 gang member. This plea came as part of a larger 36-count indictment from September 14, 2021, involving Burrus and 15 other gang members.
The indictment linked Burrus to a 2018 incident where gang members Gabriel Pulliam and Julian Scott fatally shot an innocent bystander and paralyzed another during a shooting into a crowd. Burrus was implicated as having been at the scene in one of the vehicles used by the gang members. The victim, Fransua Guzman, was a mother of four.
The investigation leading to Burrus’s sentencing was a collaborative effort involving multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI’s Northern Connecticut Gang Task Force and the Waterbury Police Department. The case falls under the Justice Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces programs, aimed at reducing violent crime and dismantling criminal enterprises across the United States.
