Felix Narvaez
Introduction
Felix Narvaez is a 55-year-old Waterbury, Connecticut man with a string of prior state felony convictions who was sent to federal prison for carrying a loaded handgun while selling cocaine out of his city. On September 3, 2026, U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley sentenced him in Bridgeport to 60 months of imprisonment — five years — followed by four years of supervised release for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The sentence was announced the next day by David X. Sullivan, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut .
The case that ended in the five-year sentence began as a street-level drug investigation: over three months in 2024, Waterbury Police officers made repeated controlled purchases of cocaine from Narvaez before arresting him and searching his home and vehicle. What they found inside turned a drug case into a federal gun case — a loaded Ruger P90 .45 caliber handgun, cocaine packaged for distribution, and nearly $3,000 in cash .
Background Information
Narvaez, 55, lived in Waterbury, Connecticut, a city whose police department ran the controlled-buy operation that built the case against him. His criminal history, as described in the Justice Department’s sentencing release, includes state felony convictions for firearm offenses, assault, and controlled substances offenses — the kind of record that exposes a person to federal prosecution for simply possessing a gun, let alone carrying one while dealing drugs .
Federal prosecutors treat armed drug dealers as priority targets because the combination multiplies the danger of every transaction. Under federal law, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime is a stand-alone offense, prosecuted separately from the drug dealing itself, and it was that gun count — not the cocaine sales — that formed the basis of Narvaez’s conviction and sentence.
The investigation was handled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) together with the Waterbury Police Department, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Natasha M. Freismuth and Mary G. Vitale .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted and sentenced. Narvaez pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and was sentenced to five years in federal prison. The conduct described here was admitted in open court as part of his plea, and the sentence was imposed on the record.
According to court documents and statements made in court, between September and November 2024 Waterbury Police made multiple controlled purchases of cocaine from Narvaez — buys in which an officer or cooperating buyer purchased drugs from him under police observation .
The pattern ended on November 7, 2024, when Narvaez was arrested on state charges. On the same date, investigators executed searches of his residence and his vehicle. The searches produced the evidence that would carry the federal case: a loaded Ruger P90 .45 A.C.P. handgun, cocaine that Narvaez intended to distribute, nearly $3,000 in cash, and other items .
Because of his prior felony convictions, Narvaez could not lawfully possess any firearm at all. Prosecutors charged the gun found alongside the distribution-scale cocaine as possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, the offense to which he later pleaded guilty. Narvaez has been detained since his arrest, meaning he has been in custody for the entire period between his November 2024 arrest and his September 2026 sentencing .
On April 9, 2026, Narvaez pleaded guilty before Judge Dooley to the firearm-in-furtherance count. Almost five months later, on September 3, 2026, the judge imposed the five-year prison term and four years of supervised release .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case drew no public statement from Narvaez, and local coverage of his sentencing was limited to the Justice Department’s own announcement. The consequences, however, are concrete: five years in federal prison, four years of supervised release to follow, and a felony conviction for firearm possession that his criminal history shows he was already barred from committing.
For the Waterbury neighborhood where the controlled buys took place, the removal of an armed cocaine dealer was the practical effect the prosecution was designed to produce. The ATF and Waterbury Police joint investigation reflects the standing division of labor in Connecticut gun cases: local officers make the buys and the arrest, and federal prosecutors take the gun count when the defendant’s record makes a federal sentence the stronger outcome.
The sentence also removes the question of what would have happened at trial. By pleading guilty in April 2026, Narvaez admitted the conduct in open court, and the sentencing proceeded on that record rather than on a jury’s verdict.
Current Status
Narvaez, 55, is serving his 60-month sentence following his September 3, 2026 sentencing in Bridgeport. He had been in federal custody continuously since his November 7, 2024 arrest, so a substantial portion of the five-year term was already served before the sentence was formally imposed. Upon release he will begin a four-year term of supervised release, during which any new firearm or drug conduct can return him to prison .
No appeal has been announced, and no post-sentencing motion is reported in public records. His supervised release will be supervised by federal probation officers in the District of Connecticut.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Narvaez was not a public figure, and no career beyond his criminal conduct is documented in the sentencing record. The conviction adds a federal felony to a criminal history that already included state felony convictions for firearms, assault, and drugs — a record that made him ineligible to possess firearms and made the five-year federal term effectively inevitable once the loaded Ruger was seized from his home.
At 55, the sentence will consume his early-to-mid sixties, followed by four years of court supervision into his late sixties. For the site’s purposes, his page documents the standard end of the armed-dealer prosecution: guilty plea, five years, supervised release, and a federal record that supersedes whatever state history came before it.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Connecticut, “Armed Waterbury Drug Dealer Sentenced to 5 Years in Federal Prison,” September 4, 2026 — source