CT man pleads guilty to racketeering in connection with gang activity that includes drug trafficking and criminal acts of violence

A Bridgeport man has pleaded guilty to racketeering for his involvement with a street gang in the city, officials said.

Luis Garcia, 25, appeared in court in Bridgeport on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to conspiring to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity, a charge that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

According to court records, the Bridgeport Police Department has been working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and United States Marshals Services to investigate multiple gangs based in Bridgeport that have been involved with criminal acts of violence, including murder and drug trafficking, officials said.

Records show that Garcia was a member of the Original North End gang, known as “O.N.E.”, based in the Trumbull Gardens area of the city.

Members of the O.N.E. gang have reportedly committed violent crimes against members of rival gangs, including the East End gang, the East Side gang and the P.T. Barnum gang, and committed other criminal offenses like selling narcotics and stealing motor vehicles, officials said.

Investigators reviewed text messages and social media posts to confer that Garcia had possessed and sold narcotics and firearms, stole motor vehicles and was involved with violent crimes alongside other members of the O.N.E gang and its associates, according to officials.

On Aug. 9, 2018, members of O.N.E. stole a Jeep Grand Cherokee in Newburgh, New York and drove it back to Bridgeport. Days later, members of the gang reportedly conspired to use the Jeep to kill members of the East End gang and their allies at a deli on Stratford Avenue, after learning through social media that they were there, officials said.

Their plan fell through, officials said, but four days later they drove the Jeep to the area of Stratford Avenue and Union Avenue, where they shot and killed 25-year-old Len Smith, who they mistook for a rival East End group member, according to officials.

Smith had been sitting in a parked car with a woman who was also shot and seriously injured. After the shooting, they took the Jeep to Indian Wells State Park in Shelton and set it on fire, officials said.

Garcia was arrested on Sept. 8, 2021 for his involvement with O.N.E. and has been detained since, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

His sentencing had not yet been scheduled and an investigation into O.N.E. and other Bridgeport gangs is ongoing, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.