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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2008

Vernon Man Sentenced to Three Years in Federal Prison for Distributing Cocaine

MAY 2 -- June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New England and Nora R. Dannehy, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that SHAUN NAPOLITANO, 28, of Vernon, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to 36 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. NAPOLITANO pleaded guilty to the offense on January 8, 2008.

According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, this matter stems from NAPOLITANO’s participation in a cocaine distribution ring that operated in eastern Connecticut. Between January and June 2007, NAPOLITANO was intercepted several hundred times over a court-authorized wiretap communicating with Timothy Sczurek. On several of those calls, NAPOLITANO negotiated the purchase of distribution quantities of cocaine from Sczurek.

Sczurek, of Lebanon, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to federal cocaine distribution charges on January 18, 2008. He awaits sentencing.

This prosecution is part of an ongoing federal, state and local law enforcement effort to quell violence fueled by the drug trade in southeastern Connecticut.

This matter has been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, the Norwich Police Department, the New London Police Department, the City of Groton Police Department, the Town of Groton Police Department, the Waterford Police Department, the Stonington Police Department, the Willimantic Police Department and the Connecticut State Police.