Trumbull Man — A Former Cop — Pleads Guilty In Federal Case

TRUMBULL, CT — A 57-year-old Trumbull man, who is a former Greenwich police officer, pleaded guilty Monday in a federal firearm case in which he is accused of transfering five firearms on behalf of his drug dealer, announced to Acting U.S. Attorney Leonard C. Boyle.

Joseph Ryan pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven to one count of possession of firearms by an unlawful user of a controlled substance. He had been arrested in February 2020.

According to court documents, in April 2018, Ansonia police searched a local home where officers looked to seize 12 firearms from a registered pistol permit holder, but only five guns were found. The guns were taken to the Ansonia Police Department for storage.

About a year later, Ryan went to the Ansonia department and took the firearms; he was a Greenwich police officer at the time.

In August and September of that year, undercover federal agents and New Haven police officers bought four firearms from Malique Martin, and three of those guns were from the five that Ryan had taken from the Ansonia department, according to prosecutors.

"The investigation revealed that Ryan, who was addicted to heroin transferred firearms to an individual who was a convicted felon, and who helped facilitate heroin transactions between Ryan and a heroin supplier," according to prosecutors. "Some of the firearms were then transferred to Martin."

Ryan is free on bond, pending sentencing in July. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Martin, of Ansonia, previously pleaded guilty to one count of dealing firearms without a license and one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. In June 2020, he was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison.

This investigation is being conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, New Haven Police Department, Ansonia Police Department and Connecticut State Police. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria del Pilar Gonzalez.

The case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make neighborhoods safer for everyone.