A Hartford, Conn. man, who Vermont authorities say made 15 crack cocaine sales in the Brattleboro area, was ordered jailed without bail in federal court in Burlington on Thursday.

Shameik Camara, 37, was on federal supervised release from illegal gun theft and possession convictions when he made the drug sales in Windham County, a federal prosecutor said in U.S. District Court.

Camara and a colleague have been using the same cellphone and the identical alias, “Cody Banks,” to set up drug sales, according to a Brattleboro Police detective assigned to the Vermont Drug Task Force.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Golubock argued in court that Camara was both a risk to flee and a danger to the community. He noted the weight of the evidence was strong and the drug sales were captured on video.

Golubock also noted Camara’s extensive criminal record. The two earlier gun convictions involved the theft of 50 firearms from a South Windsor, Conn. warehouse where Camara was employed in 2021, court records show.

Camara received a 3-year prison sentence for unlawful possession of firearms by a convicted felon and a concurrent 3-year sentence for theft of interstate shipments, records show. He was on 3 years of supervised release once discharged from federal prison.

In the latest case, Camara sold more than 10½ ounces of crack cocaine and 91 bags of fentanyl during the 15 controlled purchases by a cooperating informant, court records show.

Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle, after citing Camara’s criminal history, ruled he needed to be detained.

Authorities would only say that Camara was arrested in Brattleboro on Wednesday night. He was lodged at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town about 2 a.m. Thursday to await his initial appearance in federal court.

Social Media Producer Henry Poitras of Brattleboro, who provides public content as “Planet Hank,” posted video on Thursday afternoon that showed the arrest outside the Colonial Motel on Putney Road about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

A Black SUV was seized by authorities and towed away, presumably for a court-ordered search.

The Vermont Drug Task Force, the FBI, the Vermont State Police and Brattleboro Police were part of the arrest.

Camara, dressed in a red prison uniform, was brought into federal court by a deputy U.S. Marshal and a FBI special agent.

Under questioning from Doyle, Golubock reported that a court-ordered search of Camara’s home on Winchester Street in Hartford on Thursday netted about 100 bags of fentanyl.

Assistant Federal Defender Sara Puls had tried to argue that Camara could be released on strict conditions. She said Camara is the father of two young girls and that he was enrolled in drug treatment since early September.

Puls also said a drug test before the court hearing showed only marijuana. She said the court affidavit only outlined one drug buy.

Doyle noted that Camara has various assaults, multiple violations of probations and three protective orders issued against him in 2025 after an assault case.

Federal court records show Camara was caught in the gun theft case in October 2021 after investigators identified him through Facebook Marketplace and Offer Up posts selling high-end speakers and sports trading cards that were believed stolen from a warehouse of R&L Carriers in South Windsor, Conn. about the same time as the theft of firearms, officials said.

Officials said they found two stolen firearms, including one from the warehouse, when Camara was arrested in 2021.

By the time Camara was sentenced in federal court in October 2022, only 14 of the 50 stolen guns had been recovered.

“The 36 that remain unaccounted for represent a real danger to the community until each one is recovered,” a federal prosecutor noted at the time.