A former special agent with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency was honored posthumously last month for his role in “Operation Blood Red,” a federal firearms and drug investigation that led to the arrest of 32 people.
Chris Gardner of Veazie was a 27-year veteran of the University of Maine Police Department. Until his sudden death in November at the age of 47, Gardner was on assignment with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency for 10 years, according to a press release issued by the Maine Department of Public Safety.
He and others were honored last month in Washington, D.C., with the Director’s Award from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for their work on the operation that led to the arrest and successful prosecution of members of a violent New Haven, Connecticut, street gang called the Red Side Guerilla Brims.
Its members and their associates illegally purchased guns from a Bangor area gun dealer. Gang members either paid people to buy the weapons for them or traded the guns for drugs, the release said. The weapons were taken out of state and used by gang members in felony crimes in New Haven and other communities.
Those arrested in “Operation Blood Red” included a gang leader who pleaded guilty to charges stemming for his illegal activities in Maine and Connecticut, including several murders.
Also honored for their roles in the operation were Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey, who works in Bangor, several ATF agents, members of the New Haven Police Department’s Violent Crimes Task Force and three assistant U.S. attorneys from Connecticut, the release said.
Gardner died as a result of complications from surgery to repair an injury he suffered in the line of duty, Roy McKinney, director of the MDEA, said in announcing the award.