Bridgeport “Original North End” Gang Member Sentenced For Racketeering

Tuesday, August 12, 2025, 3:30 P.M. ET. 3 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,

WASHINGTON, DC.- A 30-year-old Bridgeport, Connecticut, man, and a known gang member of the violent Original North End street gang, will be spending the next four decades in federal prison after being sentenced yesterday for his conviction in a racketeering conspiracy.

     According to U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan, on Monday, August 11, 2025, Lorenzo Carter, also known as “Zo” and “Skiii,” 30, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Kari A. Dooley to 480 months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release for his 2023 conviction for his role in a gang-related Rackteering Conspiracy.

Lorenzo Carter, 2015 Arrest Photo

According To Charging Documents Filed With The Court

     According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Connecticut State Police and Bridgeport Police Department had been investigating multiple Bridgeport-based street gangs whose members were actively involved in narcotics trafficking, murder, and other and continuing acts of violence.  

     Carter was a member of the Original North End, a gang based in the Trumbull Gardens area of Bridgeport, Connecticut, that committed acts of violence against rival gangs, including the East End gang, the East Side gang, and the PT Barnum gang. Original North End members also robbed drug dealers, customers, and others, and sold narcotics. They stole cars from inside and outside the District of Connecticut, often using the vehicles to commit other crimes. They frequently used social media platforms to promote and coordinate their criminal activities.

     On August 9, 2018, Original North End gang members stole a Jeep Grand Cherokee in Newburgh, New York, and drove it back to Bridgeport, Connecticut. Over the following days, Original North End gang members conspired to use the car to kill East End gang members and their allies, whom they had learned through social media were at a deli on Stratford Avenue in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  

     Although that plan fell through, in the early morning hours of August 13, 2018, Carter and other Original North End gang members drove the stolen Jeep to Stratford and Union Avenues in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where they fatally gunned down Len Smith, 25, who they mistook for a rival East End gang member, and shot and seriously wounded Smith’s girlfriend, both of whom were seated in a parked car.  After the shooting, Carter and other Original North End gang members transported the Jeep to Indian Well State Park in Shelton, Connecticut, where they burned the vehicle to destroy evidence of the murder.

     Original North End gang members committed other violent crimes, including murder.  Carter and other Original North End gang members posted videos on social media platforms in which they and others brandished firearms, celebrated violent gang culture, and referenced rivals who were killed.

     Carter has been detained since his initial arrest on May 21, 2021, and was convicted on November 21, 2023, following a trial in Federal Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on Racketeering Conspiracy charges.

     In handing down the sentence on Monday, Judge Dooley noted Carter’s prior criminal history, including a state and federal firearm conviction.  In 2016, he was sentenced in Federal Court in New Haven, Connecticut to 21 months in federal prison for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, convicted felon. Carter was among 47 members and associates of multiple Bridgeport-based gangs who have been convicted of federal offenses stemming from the investigation, which has solved eight murders and approximately 20 attempted murders.