Joshua Amaral, Gunfire in Drug War, CT 2017

Joshua Amaral, also known as “Ill Child,” 34, of Hartford, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison Monday for his role in a violent 2017 shootout tied to the city’s bloody drug trade. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer handed down the sentence, which will be followed by five years of supervised release, marking the latest conviction in a sprawling federal crackdown on gang-fueled violence in Connecticut’s capital.

The gunfire erupted on April 28, 2017, in Hartford’s South End near Franklin Avenue and Barker Street, when Amaral, armed and alongside Latin Kings leader Wilson Velez, confronted a rival drug dealer. What followed was a gunfight that left Amaral shot in the leg. The exchange, investigators say, was not a random act of violence, but a calculated move in a turf war fueled by heroin and fentanyl distribution.

Amaral pleaded guilty on February 5, 2019, to two federal counts: conspiracy to possess a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and actual possession of a firearm in furtherance of such a crime. He has been in custody since his arrest on state charges on September 15, 2017 — long before his federal plea — underscoring the relentless sweep of law enforcement through the city’s most entrenched street operations.

The case was built by the FBI’s Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Task Force, alongside the Hartford Police Department’s Vice and Narcotics Division, targeting the Almighty Latin Kings Nation’s grip on Hamilton and Elliot Street apartment buildings. These locations served as hubs where Velez, known as “Wiso,” directed family and gang associates to process and distribute deadly narcotics, including multiple controlled purchases documented by investigators.

On May 1, 2018, a 41-count indictment slammed down, charging Velez, Amaral, and eight others in a web of drug and firearm offenses. Velez, arrested December 7, 2017, had his bond revoked April 5, 2018, and pleaded guilty February 22, 2019, to conspiring to distribute over a kilogram of heroin and 400 grams of fentanyl, as well as firearm charges tied to the drug operation. He now awaits sentencing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian P. Leaming prosecuted the case, which pulled together task force units from the Hartford and East Hartford Police Departments, Connecticut State Police, and the Department of Correction. The conviction of Amaral, prosecutors say, dismantles another link in the violent chain that’s terrorized Hartford neighborhoods for years.