Source: Office of United States Attorneys
Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that on June 18, 2024, JORGE MORALES, also known as “Capone,” 38, of Bridgeport, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
According to court documents and statements made in court, in January 2017, Morales was sentenced in Bridgeport federal court to 46 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for distributing heroin. The investigation revealed that in April 2016 Morales distributed heroin to a 21-year-old woman who died of an overdose from the drug. Morales was released from federal prison in September 2019.
On December 17, 2021, while Morales was on federal supervised release, Bridgeport Police conducted a traffic stop of an SUV Morales was driving because the vehicle had been spotted near the scene of a shooting incident and homicide on Barnum Avenue earlier that day. Before the SUV came to a complete stop, a juvenile girl ran from it carrying an object close to her chest. As officers apprehended the girl, she dropped a loaded Glock 22 semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine. The investigation revealed that the gun belonged to Morales and that, as he was being pulled over, he told the girl to take the gun and run.
In addition to his prior federal conviction, Morales’ criminal history includes state convictions for drug and firearm felony offenses. It is a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce.
Judge Underhill scheduled sentencing for September 10, 2024, at which time Morales faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years for unlawfully possessing the firearm. He also faces penalties for violating the conditions of his supervised release.
Morales has been detained since his arrest.
This matter is being investigated by the FBI’s Bridgeport Safe Streets Task Force, the Bridgeport Police Department, and the Stratford Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel George and Karen Peck.
The prosecution is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce gun violence and other violent crime, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. In May 2021, the Justice Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit www.justice.gov/psn.