Ta’Ron Pharr, Racketeering, Connecticut 2018

A Bridgeport gang member has pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering charge stemming from a 2018 murder in the city’s East End. Ta’Ron Pharr, 21, also known as ‘250,’ entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to one count of engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity.

Pharr was a member of the Original North End (‘O.N.E.’) gang, which was involved in narcotics trafficking, murder, and other acts of violence in Bridgeport. The gang targeted rival groups, including the East End gang, the East Side gang, and the PT Barnum gang, and committed robberies, sold narcotics, laundered narcotics proceeds, and stole cars from inside and outside Connecticut.

On August 8, 2018, Pharr and other O.N.E. members stole a white Jeep Grand Cherokee in Newburgh, New York, and drove it back to Bridgeport. In the early morning hours of August 13, 2018, O.N.E. members drove the stolen Jeep to Union Avenue in Bridgeport where they shot and killed Len Smith, 25, who they mistook for a rival East End group member, and shot and seriously wounded Smith’s female companion, both of whom were seated in a parked car.

Pharr and others transported the Jeep to Indian Wells State Park in Shelton where they burned the vehicle in an effort to destroy evidence of the murder. Pharr was detained since July 7, 2020.

Pharr pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.

This ongoing investigation is being conducted by the FBI’s Safe Streets and Violent Crimes Task Forces, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Bridgeport Police Department, Connecticut State Police, and the Bridgeport State’s Attorney’s Office, with the assistance of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory, and the Waterbury Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rahul Kale, Jocelyn C. Kaoutzanis, Peter D. Markle, and Karen L. Peck.

This prosecution is a part of the Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), Project Longevity, and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) programs. PSN is a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make neighborhoods safer for everyone. Project Longevity is a comprehensive initiative to reduce gun violence in Connecticut’s major cities. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations through a prosecutor-led and intelligence-driven approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

Ta’Ron Pharr, 21, of Bridgeport, pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years. He has been detained since July 7, 2020. The exact date of sentencing has not been specified.