A 56-year-old Wolcott man is facing state charges after Hartford police say he was one of three men who traveled to a local hotel believing they were about to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex. Billa Hasan was arrested alongside two other men following an undercover investigation run out of Hartford in late May, according to court and police accounts of the sting.
A Hartford police detective used age-regression technology to pose online as a 15-year-old girl, an operation that ultimately netted three arrests, according to nhregister.com. The three men communicated with the undercover detective online, believing they were talking to an underage girl, before arranging to meet her for sex, per thehour.com.
Arrests Made at Brainard Road Hotel
The arrests took place at the Best Western Hotel on Brainard Road in Hartford, with assistance from the FBI's Crimes Against Children Human Trafficking Task Force, the same nhregister.com report states. Hartford Police's Child Exploitation Unit worked with that federal task force on the operation, according to wfsb.com's account of the sting. The three men traveled to the Hartford location expecting to meet the underage female they believed they had been communicating with online, per that same report.
All three suspects were taken into custody without incident and transported to the Hartford Police Detention Facility for processing, the station's report notes. Each of the three men faced the same core set of charges: attempted second-degree sexual assault, attempted sexual abuse of a minor, and attempted sexual contact with a victim under 16, according to the same account. Hasan specifically was charged with attempted second-degree sexual assault, attempted sexual abuse of a minor, and attempted sexual contact with a victim under 16 years of age, nhregister.com reported.
Conflicting Reports on Bond Amounts
Bond figures for the three men have been reported inconsistently. One account states that all three men were initially held on $500,000 bonds, while another reports that two of the men — identified as Williams and Sheikh — were later arraigned in Hartford Superior Court and released on bond, with amounts set at $75,000 and $50,000 respectively, according to court records cited by nhregister.com. The hometown of one of the other men arrested in the sting, Lennox Williams, has also been reported differently across coverage, with one report listing Amherst, Massachusetts, and other accounts listing a different Massachusetts city.
As of the most recent reporting available, the charges against Hasan remain pending, and he has not been convicted of the allegations against him.
ICE Says It Arrested Hasan in Wolcott
According to New Bedford Guide, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Boston Field Office says it arrested Hasan Billa — using a reversed version of the name used in earlier local coverage — in Wolcott on September 3 as part of a targeted enforcement operation. ICE Boston announced the arrest on social media, describing it as part of targeted operations in Wolcott, per that same report. The agency's announcement was released September 25, according to New Bedford Guide.
ICE Boston did not release additional details about Hasan's immigration history, nor did it disclose whether he is currently in ICE detention or what the next steps in any removal proceedings might be, according to the New Bedford Guide report. The provided court and police reporting on the Hartford sting does not independently confirm details of Hasan's immigration status or nationality.
