by Paul Bass & Nicolás Medina Mora Pérez | May 22, 2012 4:31 pm

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(Updated) The largest-ever federal criminal sweep in Connecticut history netted 35 more alleged crack-dealing New Haven gang members Tuesday, and at least one man was hauled out of bed in a case of mistaken identity.

The fast-paced day began with predawn busts in the Fair Haven and Dwight-Kensington neighborhoods as well as some suburban communities. It continued with dozens of assembly-line appearances in U.S. District Court on Church Street, featured a near-brawl on the courthouse steps, and concluded with the state’s top prosecutor joining federal and local police officials in declaring victory.

“This,” the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney David Fein, said at a 3 p.m press conference, “is the largest federal criminal case in state history.”

The operation is called “Operation Bloodline.” The federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) ran it along with New Haven’s cops. Police from Hamden, North Haven, Milford, Ansonia, North Branford, and Branford took part, too.

It began a little more than a year ago, targeting the group accused of dominating the New Haven crack trade and having a hand in much of the tit-for-tat deadly violence on the streets: the Dwight-Kensington-based Tre Bloods gang.

Building on intelligence gathered by New Haven cops and DEA agents, the investigators had a potent weapon in their arsenal: court-authorized wiretaps on 22 different telephones.

They gathered enough evidence to obtain 105 indictments on charges related to crack and powder cocaine dealing as well as marijuana and oxycodone peddling.

Last Thursday agents conducted a sweep that netted the 32 arrests. (Another 14 defendants were already in court on other charges.)

Tuesday, beginning at 4 a.m., agents fanned out in New Haven neighborhoods to rouse another 35 defendants, with street names like “White Boy Chris,” “Leg,” “Ears,” “Gutter,” “Killer Kai,” “Click,” “Big Baby,” “Skeletor,” “Bucky B,” “Kerm,” “Slim, “Kool Nike,” “Freak,” and “Dark Knight.”

Altogether to date agents have caught up with all but 15 of the 105 wanted people, according to Fein.

Most of those arrested were indicted on charges of taking part in a conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. They face minimum sentences of 10 years in jail, up to life; and up to $10 million in fines. Some face heroin and powder cocaine charges as well as possession with intent to sell narcotics and possession of illegal firearms.

“We put a big dent in the gang violence in this city,” New Haven Assistant Police Chief Archie Generoso declared Tuesday. “We’re going to continue doing that. We’re not going to stop here.”

Wake Up! Whoever You Are

On Tuesday, as on last Thursday, the same judges—Magistrate William I. Garfinkel in Courtroom 1 on the courthouse’s first floor; Magistrate Donna F. Martinez in Courtroom 3 on the second floor; and Magistrate Joan G. Margolis in Courtroom 4 on the third floor—heard a steady stream of cases. Prosecutors asked that the defendants be held pending further detention hearings, and the judges agreed.

Confused and upset relatives, meanwhile, streamed in, trying to find the right courtrooms to learn what had happened to their arrested relatives.

Most of the morning, five to seven defendants came in at a time. In brief appearances, most pleaded not guilty.

In one case, an arrested man went free—after prosecutors acknowledged they had the wrong guy.

The man (pictured), who lives in Meriden, was taken into custody around 5 a.m. He was brought to New Haven in a state of confusion.

“They kicked in the door, and I was naked with my girlfriend, and they wouldn’t tell me what I was charged with!” he said in the court lobby after his court appearance. He was waiting for agents to give him back a cellphone and $2,000 in confiscated cash.

It turns out he has a similar name to that of another Meriden man, whom the feds had indicted in Operation Bloodline.

“They didn’t do their research,” he said of the feds. “They put me in a lockup with a bunch of New Haven people I don’t know, and then they’re telling me that me and this kid Chris bought some crack to sell around—except I’ve never seen this kid in my life!”

The prosecutor’s office quickly realized it had the wrong man, and agreed to the judge releasing him. But the courts were strained by the indictments of dozens of Tre gang members. The man cooled his heels while waiting for someone to become available to do the paperwork necessary to return his phone and money—much less give him a ride home.

“They weren’t too busy to arrest me at 5 in the morning,” he complained. “But they’re too busy to give me my phone back! How the fuck am I supposed to get back to Meriden?”

He said that this is not the first time he has been arrested wrongly because of confusion over his name.

“I mean, I smoke pot,” he admitted. “But I’ve got nothing to do with crack. I don’t even live here!”

More than eight ours after the arrest, he got his phone back—and an agent in a DEA jacket gave him a ride home.

Meanwhile, in Courtroom 3, a woman was ordered released after she, unlike the other defendants, came in to face the judge alone rather than be brought in with a group of fellow defendants.

According to prosecutor Jonathan Freeman, the woman had been a “low-level member” of the conspiracy: The wiretap investigation found her trying to buy “relatively small amounts of cocaine base [crack]” from a person involved in the case. Freeman added that the defendant had an outstanding warrant for larceny in Meriden and that she had a history of marijuana use.

The defendant’s lawyer tried to make a case for her release. He explained that she has two children, both in school, and that she takes them to music classes in the afternoon. He added that she is employed, that she lives in her own apartment, and that she attends church every Sunday.

Magistrate Martinez agreed to the release with the condition that the defendant remain the custody of her mother, who was present at the court. Nevertheless, the prosecutor pointed out that given her outstanding larceny warrant the defendant had to wait for the Meriden cops to arrive to serve her the warrant before she could leave the building.

“Get Him Out If He’s Your Man!”

Confused and upset relatives streamed into court Tuesday, trying to find the right courtrooms to learn what had happened to their arrested relatives.

Sabrina Tillman (pictured outside the courthouse) helped a friend navigate several different courthouses before finding the right one where her relative was appearing.

“She’s nervous. She doesn’t know anything. She’s here to try to find out what’s going on,” said Tillman, who came to court wearing on Obama pin.

Outside on the courthouse steps, agents in “Operation Bloodline” separated two women engaged in a shouting match.

It occurred during a court recess right before noon. The two women were among a half-dozen people who had just left court proceedings.

“You are mad I came!” one shouted.

“Get him out if he’s your man!” the other responded.

“He’s not about that life!”

“Come with me around the block” to settle this, one challenged the other.

“Any time you want your ass whooped come see me!”

Five other women tried to keep them apart. Finally the agents arrived, broke it up, threatened to arrest the women if they didn’t disperse. They dispersed.

Later Tuesday, at the U.S. Attorney’s press conference on the 25th floor of the Connecticut Financial Center, a reporter asked New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman whether this raid means New Haven has bonafide “gangs.” New Haven officials have gone back and forth in answering that question “yes” and “no” over the past decades.

“There is a gang problem in every city in America,” Esserman responded. “And New Haven is an American city.”