Crime & Safety

Cabbie with Illegal, Loaded Gun to Fairfield Cop: 'I'm on the Phone'

Arrest information is supplied by the Fairfield Police Department. It does not indicate convictions.

Fairfield police arrested a taxi driver before dawn Monday on drug and weapons charges after stopping him for talking on a cellphone.

Albrent Daniels, 39, of 116 Seeley St., Bridgeport, was charged with weapons in a motor vehicle, carrying a pistol without a permit, criminal possession of a firearm, altering a serial number on a firearm, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He also was cited for operating a motor vehicle without a hands-free device.

At about 1 a.m., Officer Mike Paris saw Daniels driving a Yellow Taxi Cab north on Chambers Street at Johnson Drive and talking into a cellphone that he held to his ear, according to a police report.

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When confronted by Paris and asked what he was doing, Daniels said, “I’m on the phone,” according to police, then drove onto Interstate 95 north. Paris stopped him on the highway and found a fully loaded 9-mm handgun under the driver’s seat, with 11 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, as well as a grinder with marijuana, police said.

After taking Daniels to headquarters for processing, “Officers found numerous discrepancies in his acount of when and how he purchased the gun,” police said.

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Police say Daniels is a convicted felon.

Daniels was released on $100,000 bond and scheduled to appear Dec. 30 in state Superior Court.


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