Reaching deeper into what they say was one of Anne Arundel County's largest drug empires, county prosecutors charged 10 people yesterday as the street-level dealers for a Cape St. Claire family.
A county grand jury indicted eight people on conspiracy and related charges, and charges were filed against two others.
The charges are the latest in a five-year probe into a ring that allegedly smuggled more than 110 pounds of cocaine out of southern Florida and into Anne Arundel County from 1990 to 1996, setting up a Severna Park barbershop as a front for its high-stakes business.
Court documents and testimony -- some of it from a man under federal protection who told prosecutors that he ran the operation -- discuss arson and murder contracts.
Prosecutors say the federal Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force and local police have brought down the head of the clan, his sons, their middlemen and now the street traffickers of cocaine and marijuana.
John Baumgarten Sr. and his sons, John Jr. and Anthony Quinn Baumgarten, are awaiting trial on federal drug-trafficking charges. John S. Luke, Joseph Cerniglia Jr. and Richard T. McArdle have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing on drug charges. Jesus I. Rodriguez was convicted and sentenced to 6 1/2 years in a federal prison.
Prosecutors would not say whether they were pressing for more indictments.
The eight people newly indicted are believed to have gotten drugs from middlemen and sold them locally.
"They were the low-level drug dealers. They distributed cocaine and marijuana at the street level, in small amounts," said State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee.
Indicted yesterday afternoon were Howard Frank Ashburn III of the 200 block of First Ave. in Glen Burnie; Mark Norman Greene of the 400 block of Beach Road in Arnold; Scot Joseph Perron of the 1200 block of Dogwood Road in Arnold; Paul Portman Wilson of the 1000 block of Little Magothy View in Annapolis; Robert Clinton Nokes Jr. of the 1100 block of Summit Ave. in Annapolis; Patrick Evans of the 800 block of Barrett Ave. in Arnold; Gregory Darryl Perry of the 300 block of Burnside St. in Annapolis; and Shawan Christopher Killian of the first block of Silopana Road in Annapolis.
Charged in criminal informations were Paul David Lerner II of the 1700 block of Cameron Court in Crofton; and Melissa Kiser Rodriguez of the 500 block of Annabel Ave. in Baltimore.
Pub Date: 6/17/97
