Connecticut Priest Kevin Wallin Busted on Drug-dealing Charges

By Dan Mangan
New York Post
January 18, 2013

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/priest_sinful_drug_sales_AB6Lk1qCeHhRCe4Wzuk1LI

A Connecticut priest — who once was a top aide to Edward Cardinal Egan — was busted for selling ultra-pure crystal meth shipped to him by California co-conspirators, law-enforcement officials said yesterday.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin, 61, faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted of the drug conspiracy, which echoes the hit AMC show “Breaking Bad,” where mild-mannered science teacher White becomes a drug kingpin.

Wallin was likely slinging meth to help fund his purchase of a shop selling drug paraphernalia, adult movies and toys, authorities said.

Kevin Wallin

Wallin, on six different occasions from September until this month, sold undercover cops several grams of crystal meth, which tested as high as 98.5 percent pure, according to federal court records.

He also received a shipment of nearly 400 grams of meth from conspirators in California in December, records claim.

Wallin for years was a prestigious priest in the Bridgeport Diocese, serving as personal secretary to Bishop Walter Curtis and his successor, Egan, before Egan became the boss of New York’s Archdiocese.

But last year, after resigning as pastor of the diocese’s cathedral, Wallin was stripped of his ability to act publicly as a priest.

He was arrested Jan. 3 at his Waterbury apartment, along with his co-defendant, Kenneth “Lyme” DeVries.