Bridgeport Gun Trafficker Brannon Winston Sentenced to 40 Months

A 24-year-old Bridgeport resident is headed to federal prison for his role in a gun trafficking operation that supplied firearms to local gangs.

Brannon Winston, 24, of Bridgeport, was sentenced to 40 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for firearm trafficking and possession offenses.

The investigation, led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Bridgeport Police Department, revealed that Winston personally purchased at least 18 firearms in Georgia and provided them to customers in Connecticut.

Some of the firearms were used in shooting incidents in Bridgeport, including one on the city’s East Side. In December 2022, Winston was arrested by Bridgeport Police for possessing a .357 caliber handgun with a loaded high capacity magazine.

The handgun had been purchased in Jonesboro, Georgia, on November 11, 2022, and ballistics analysis revealed that it had been used in a shooting in Bridgeport’s East Side the day before Winston’s arrest.

Winston has been detained in federal custody since January 3, 2023, and pleaded guilty to one count of crossing state lines with the intent to engage unlicensed dealing of firearms and one count of receipt of a firearm by a person under indictment.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale through Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program aimed at reducing violent crime through a combination of enforcement and prevention efforts.

PSN focuses on identifying the most pressing violent crime problems in a community and developing comprehensive solutions to address them. Through PSN, law enforcement and community stakeholders work together to reduce crime and improve public safety.