Member Of Violent Bridgeport Street Gang Receives Lengthy Prison Sentence

BRIDGEPORT, CT — A 30-year-old Bridgeport man, who federal prosecutors said was a member of a local street gang, was sentenced this week to 40 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for his involvement with the violent group.

Lorenzo Carter, also known as "Zo" and "Skiii," was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport. In November 2023, Carter was convicted after trial of racketeering conspiracy; he has been detained since May 2021.

The sentencing announcement was made by U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan; Joseph T. Corradino, State’s Attorney for the Fairfield Judicial District; Bridgeport Police Chief Roderick Porter; P.J. O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bryan DiGirolamo, Acting Special Agent in Charge, ATF Boston Field Division; Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England, and Acting U.S. Marshal John Iverson.

According to court documents and evidence presented during the trial, the FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Connecticut State Police and Bridgeport Police have been investigating multiple Bridgeport-based gangs whose members are involved in narcotics trafficking, murder, and other acts of violence. Carter was a member of the Original North End, also known as O.N.E., a gang based in the Trumbull Gardens area of Bridgeport that committed acts of violence against rival gangs, including the East End gang, the East Side gang, and the PT Barnum gang.

O.N.E. members also robbed drug dealers, customers, and others, sold narcotics, and stole cars from inside and outside Connecticut, often using the cars to commit crimes, according to prosecutors, and frequently used social media to promote and coordinate their criminal activities.

From the sentencing announcement:

On August 9, 2018, O.N.E. members stole a Jeep Grand Cherokee in Newburgh, New York, and drove it back to Bridgeport. In the following days, O.N.E. members conspired to use the car to kill East End gang members and their allies who they had learned through social media were at a deli on Stratford Avenue in Bridgeport. Although that plan fell through, in the early morning hours of August 13, 2018, Carter and other O.N.E. members drove the stolen Jeep to Stratford and Union Avenues in Bridgeport where they shot and killed Len Smith, 25, who they mistook for a rival East End member, and shot and seriously wounded Smith’s female companion, both of whom were seated in a parked car. After the shooting, Carter and other O.N.E. members transported the Jeep to Indian Well State Park in Shelton where they burned the vehicle in an effort to destroy evidence of the murder.

O.N.E. members committed other violent crimes, including murder. Carter and other O.N.E. members, posted videos to social media in which they and others brandished firearms, celebrated violent gang culture, and referenced rivals who were killed.

Carter’s criminal history includes a state and federal firearm convictions. In 2016, he was sentenced in New Haven federal court to 21 months of imprisonment for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.

Approximately 47 members and associates of multiple Bridgeport-based gangs have been convicted of federal offenses stemming from this investigation, which has solved eight murders and approximately 20 attempted murders.

This investigation has been conducted by the FBI’s Safe Streets and Violent Crimes Task Forces, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Bridgeport Police Department, Connecticut State Police and the Bridgeport State’s Attorney’s Office, with the assistance of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory, and the police departments from Norwalk, Stamford, Fairfield, Stratford, Ansonia, Monroe, Waterbury, Naugatuck, Eastchester (N.Y.), Rye (N.Y.), and Newburgh (N.Y.). The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karen L. Peck, Jocelyn C. Kaoutzanis, Stephanie T. Levick, and Rahul Kale.

This prosecution is a part of the Justice’s Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), Project Longevity and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) programs.