Armed Waterbury Drug Dealer Sentenced to 5 Years in Federal Prison
Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that on April 28, 2023, CORNELIUS CONEY, also known as “C Nizzy,” 35, of Waterbury, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to 60 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
According to court documents and statements made in court, in July 2021, Waterbury Police retrieved a bag from Coney’s vehicle, which had been towed by a private towing company. The bag contained a loaded 9mm semiautomatic handgun that had been reported stolen, approximately 50 grams of crack cocaine, approximately 50 does bags containing fentanyl, a digital scale, and other items. Subsequent lab analysis revealed the presence of Coney’s DNA on the firearm.
Coney was arrested on September 21, 2021. On January 3, 2023, he pleaded guilty to possession of firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Coney has been detained since his arrest.
This investigation was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Waterbury Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Natasha M. Freismuth and John T. Pierpont, Jr.
U.S. Attorney Avery thanked the State’s Attorney’s Office for the Judicial District of Waterbury for its close cooperation in investigating and prosecuting this matter.
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 violent crime and gun violence, 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.
