Drug Dealer From Hartford Sentenced For Vermont Operation: Feds

BURLINGTON, VT/HARTFORD, CT – A Hartford drug dealer was sent to prison by a Vermont federal judge this week after he previously pled guilty to trafficking fentanyl.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont said Wednesday that Brendan Salmon, 36, of Hartford, Conn., was sentenced to 11 years in prison Monday, June 23, to be followed by a five-year term of supervised release.

Salmon previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute fentanyl, cocaine base, and cocaine between mid-2022 and November 2023, and causing a straw purchase of a firearm in September 2022.

According to court records, Salmon, who used the street name “Nice,” began distributing fentanyl, crack, and powder cocaine in the Stowe, Vt., area in the spring of 2022.

His operation, which included several associates, expanded to Morristown, Vt., and Hardwick, Vt., as his trafficking continued into 2023, authorities said.

Two of his Connecticut couriers were stopped along Interstate 89 in separate 2023 law enforcement operations, officials said.

In each stop, law enforcement seized over 2,700 bags of fentanyl and over half a kilogram of crack and powder cocaine.

The two couriers were also convicted in connection with those seizures.

Salmon was also actively involved in acquiring firearms, principally handguns, in Vermont from drug customers, some of whom purchased guns for him at Vermont firearms dealers, according to federal officials.

Salmon was arrested during a search warrant on a residence in Hardwick, Vt., in November 2023.

He has been detained since that time.

Acting United States Attorney Michael P. Drescher commended the efforts of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Vermont State Police, the Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department, the Morristown Police Department, and the Stowe Police Department.

For more information on the case, click on this link.