Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

TRENTON, N.J. – A Trenton man was sentenced today to 86 months in prison for possessing a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon and for distributing quantities of heroin, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Kendall Rossi, 41, previously pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson to Counts One and Four of an indictment charging him with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon and distribution and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances. Judge Wolfson imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On three occasions between August 2017 and September 2017, Rossi, who previously had been convicted of numerous felonies, and whom law enforcement officials had identified as an unlawful firearms supplier in and around Trenton, sold quantities of heroin and ANPP (a fentanyl analogue) to a confidential law enforcement source. Rossi boasted about his ability to obtain numerous firearms that he could sell. In October 2017, in a controlled transaction supervised by federal law enforcement, Rossi sold the confidential source a .380 caliber semi-automatic firearm and 47 rounds of .380 caliber ammunition. Rossi sold the firearm to the source under the belief that the source would use the firearm in connection with a robbery.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Wolfson sentenced Rossi to three years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Newark Division, Trenton Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Charlie J. Patterson, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Brendan Day of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Trenton.

20-052

Defense Counsel: Alyssa Cimino Esq., Fairfield, New Jersey

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