Ex-SHU football player pleads guilty in drug-trafficking case

A former Sacred Heart University football player, arrested last June following a two-month investigation into allegations that he was trafficking in narcotics from Long Island to the greater Bridgeport area, pleaded guilty to drug charges Wednesday.

Brett Swider, 20, of Boca Raton, Fla., pleaded guilty before Bridgeport Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin to possession of narcotics with intent to sell and possession of narcotics.

Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney C. Robert Satti Jr. said he will recommend Swider serve a four-year prison term when he is sentenced Aug. 10.

Swider's father, John, is head of distribution for America Media, which publishes the National Enquirer.

Police said Swider has been conducting a large-scale drug operation, specifically dealing in Oxycodone, which he purchased in Long Island and resold in this area.

Fairfield police said on several occasions they observed Swider return from New York and make apparent drug sales outside his apartment on Eckart Street in Bridgeport. Last July 5, police pulled over Swider's car on the Merritt Parkway, where they said they found more than 700 Oxycodone pills in a bag stuffed into a hidden compartment in the dashboard of his car. He was charged at that time with possession of narcotics with intent to sell and possession of narcotics.

Police said they later got a warrant to search Swider's Eckart Street apartment and found 10 Suboxone pills wrapped in plastic, three glass smoking pipes and 16 unused syringes.