Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

HARTFORD, Conn. — Vanessa Roberts Avery, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Denroy Fable, 40, of Hartford, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to 102 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for unlawfully possessing a firearm, and for violating his conditions of supervised release that followed a prior federal conviction.

According to the evidence presented during Fable’s trial in October 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Hartford Task Force and Hartford Police Department conducted an investigation of a business located at 136 Barbour Street in Hartford that was suspected of trafficking narcotics. The business, a purported clothing store, had an awning that read “The HOLE Ex-Con 360 the movement.”  In October 2022, investigators made two controlled drug purchases of marijuana from the store.

On October 5, 2022, Fable and others were in the store when investigators conducted a court-authorized search of the store and seized quantities of suspected crack cocaine, psychedelic mushrooms, cocaine, marijuana, heroin, synthetic opioid pills, fentanyl pills disguised as oxycodone, MDMA, drug packaging and processing materials, U.S. currency, and five handguns. One of the handguns seized, a loaded .380 semiautomatic pistol, was found in a pocket of Fable’s jacket that was hanging on a shelf. Subsequent forensic testing of the firearm revealed the presence of Fable’s DNA.

Fable’s criminal history includes state convictions for criminal possession of a firearm, and carrying a pistol without a permit, and federal convictions for possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and crack.

On October 26, 2023, Fable was found guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.

In March 2019, Fable was sentenced in New Haven federal court to 37 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. He was released from prison in August 2020, and was on supervised release when he possessed the firearm in October 2022.

Judge Williams sentenced Fable to 78 months of imprisonment for unlawfully possessing the firearm, and a consecutive 24 months of imprisonment for violating the conditions of his supervised release.

Fable has been detained since October 5, 2022.

This investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) Hartford Task Force and the Hartford Police Department, with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory.  The DEA Task Force includes personnel from the DEA Hartford Resident Office, the Connecticut State Police, and the Bristol, Hartford, East Hartford, Enfield, Manchester, New Britain, Rocky Hill, Wethersfield, and Windsor Locks Police Departments. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys A. Reed Durham and Brendan J. Keefe.

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