Drug Conspiracy

A federal grand jury has indicted 26-year-old Steven Blackwell — long suspected by Baltimore police of being a major drug kingpin on the city's east side — on a charge of running a heroin ring that stretched from New York to the Dominican Republic. Blackwell, a resident of Elkton, was indicted with Tahirah Carter, 34, of Cockeysville and Joy Edison, 24, of Elkton. All three face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the drug conspiracy, which prosecutors allege began in late 2003.

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson , 31. Grew up dealing drugs in East Baltimore and at age 14 killed a youth in a fight. On HBO series "The Wire," played an enforcer for drug organization. Arrested last year as part of a drug sweep and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell heroin. Put on probation with a suspended sentence. Shawn Johnson. New York drug supplier described by Pearson as an old friend. Pleaded guilty to being the drug network's main supplier, trafficking in 10-kilogram heroin shipments.

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson , 31. Grew up dealing drugs in East Baltimore and at age 14 killed a youth in a fight. On HBO series "The Wire," played an enforcer for drug organization. Arrested last year as part of a drug sweep and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell heroin. Put on probation with a suspended sentence. Shawn Johnson. New York drug supplier described by Pearson as an old friend. Pleaded guilty to being the drug network's main supplier, trafficking in 10-kilogram heroin shipments.

A federal court judge on Thursday sentenced 21-year-old Romesh Vance, who was featured in a 2005 documentary about Baltimore boys sent to boarding school in Kenya, to 70 months in prison for participating in a drug conspiracy at the Gilmor Homes public housing complex. "I'm hoping that Mr. Vance will be one of the real success stories," U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg said in handing down the sentence. Legg noted Vance's youth, "tremendous" family support and the many opportunities he's had in his short life that have shown him better ways of doing things.

One of nine people charged in what authorities contend is a huge drug conspiracy turned against two of his former bosses Monday, testifying as a government witness on the opening day of their narcotics conspiracy and weapons possession trial. At least a half-dozen people have reached plea agreements with the Maryland U.S. attorney's office, including Antoine Boston, who was alleged to have been a drug shop manager for Johnnie "JR" Butler and Calvin "Turkey" Wright. Boston testified Monday to certain heroin dealings with the defendants, whose attorneys worked to discredit him. Prosecutors contend Butler and Wright ran a violent and well-connected heroin operation on Baltimore's east side, able to sneak drugs into prison, get a heads-up about warrants from courthouse staff and skirt the gun-application process.

A 13-year-old Romesh Vance sat on a Baltimore carousel eight years ago, spinning slowly as he predicted his future. "I think all our lives [are] going to be bad now," he said. The statement was captured on camera by the documentary filmmakers following his journey - and its premature end - at the Baraka boarding school in Kenya, which gave a handful of disadvantaged city boys the chance to study in Africa. The school was unexpectedly closed in 2003. On Wednesday, a 21-year-old Vance pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to participating in a drug conspiracy involving nearly two dozen people who allegedly sold cocaine and crack out of the Gilmor Homes public housing complex.

A federal court judge on Thursday sentenced 21-year-old Romesh Vance, who was featured in a 2005 documentary about Baltimore boys sent to boarding school in Kenya, to 70 months in prison for participating in a drug conspiracy at the Gilmor Homes public housing complex. "I'm hoping that Mr. Vance will be one of the real success stories," U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg said in handing down the sentence. Legg noted Vance's youth, "tremendous" family support and the many opportunities he's had in his short life that have shown him better ways of doing things.

George A. Dangerfield Jr. -- the 29-year-old convicted drug dealer who became one of the city's largest slum landlords -- walked into U.S. District Court in Baltimore yesterday to face federal drug conspiracy charges wearing a double-breasted suit and a wide grin."

A Baltimore police officer indicted on drug conspiracy charges was released yesterday on $100,000 bail by a city judge after a hearing in which prosecutors said the officer tried to warn suspected drug dealers about their impending arrests. Officer Aleacia L. Hill, 25, said nothing during the hearing and declined to comment afterward. Her lawyer said Hill is innocent. During Hill's initial appearance before Circuit Judge John M. Glynn yesterday, prosecutors laid out details of the sting operation that led to the officer's arrest.

A federal jury on Friday convicted two Baltimore men, one of them a Bloods gang member, on racketeering and drug conspiracy charges after two hours of deliberation. Terrence "Squeaky" Richardson, 30, was found guilty of conspiring to sell crack, cocaine, heroin and marijuana as a leader of the Pasadena Denver Lanes set of the Bloods. He was also convicted of racketeering and accused of ordering several murders as part of PDL operations. Gregory Saulsbury, 46, was found guilty of conspiring to deal crack cocaine, even though he's not a gang member.

A federal indictment unsealed Friday accuses four people — including a mother and her son — of directing a drug-dealing operation in Baltimore's strip-club district through violence and intimidation, including the 2010 killing of a dancer they suspected of giving information to police. Police had arrested one of the defendants named in this week's indictment, Tyrone Johniken, last January in the killing of 25-year-old Cherrie Gammon, who was fatally shot in Leakin Park on Dec. 12, 2010.

An Eastern Shore man who got out of federal prison in December when his crack cocaine sentence was reduced was sent back to prison this week after being sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for distributing drugs. Prosecutors with the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said Clevon "Ty" Johnson, 38, went back to his old career less than a year after walking out of prison. "Mr. Johnson did not learn the first time he went to prison for a drug conviction and crime does not pay," said Ava Cooper-Davis, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Washington field office.

A 13-year-old Romesh Vance sat on a Baltimore carousel eight years ago, spinning slowly as he predicted his future. "I think all our lives [are] going to be bad now," he said. The statement was captured on camera by the documentary filmmakers following his journey - and its premature end - at the Baraka boarding school in Kenya, which gave a handful of disadvantaged city boys the chance to study in Africa. The school was unexpectedly closed in 2003. On Wednesday, a 21-year-old Vance pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to participating in a drug conspiracy involving nearly two dozen people who allegedly sold cocaine and crack out of the Gilmor Homes public housing complex.

An Elkton woman indicted last year alongside a reputed drug kingpin on charges they ran a vast heroin ring was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison Monday, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office announced. Tahirah Carter, 35, was charged with drug conspiracy in August for her role as a courier for Steven Blackwell Jr., a key player, authorities say, in a violent drug feud that has led to at least four homicides and several shootouts on Baltimore streets. She pleaded guilty last fall, according to online court records, though much about her case has been kept secret.

The Baltimore Police Department removed its commander in charge of internal investigations late Monday, a move police sources describe as fallout from last week's indictment of a city police officer on drug charges. Maj. Nathan Warfield, picked in 2009 by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to root out corruption within the department, was reassigned a week after Bealefeld said the arrest of Officer Daniel G. Redd proved his agency would not tolerate misconduct. Earlier Monday, The Baltimore Sun had asked the department to comment on pictures posted on Facebook showing Warfield socializing with Redd and a man named Sam Brown, who was also charged this month in a separate heroin distribution conspiracy.

Dan McIntosh, one of the owners of Sonar, has been named in a federal indictment alongside some 14 individuals for participating in a cross-country drug distribution ring, City Paper reported today citing court documents filed in Florida in December. Over the phone, McIntosh responded to the charges by saying he intends on pleading "not guilty," and that Sonar, which closed temporarily in May, is not in any danger of shutting down again. The drug ring lasted for eight years and involved distributing California-grown marijuana in Maryland, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.

Two conspirators in a jail drug ring masterminded by notorious heroin dealer John Edward "Liddy" Jones were sentenced yesterday to prison terms in federal court in Baltimore.Joyce Y. Cottom, Jones' girlfriend, who arranged to buy the drugs and smuggle them to Jones at the Baltimore City Detention Center, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for conspiring to distribute heroin and marijuana.Aaron Liles, Cottom's granddaughter's boyfriend, who collected money from friends and relatives of Jones' jail customers, got 30 months for drug conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors in Baltimore announced yesterday that seven area men have been charged with operating a drug ring responsible for selling large amounts of cocaine and crack cocaine in Baltimore and Baltimore County during the past nine months. A 12-count indictment, unsealed yesterday, described a cocaine ring based in Randallstown, with stash houses across the region to store drugs, guns and cash profits from the business. Charged in the drug conspiracy were: Gregory L. "Nice" Wilson, 30, and Andre L. "Dre" Clark, 35, both of Catonsville; Edwin L. "Gator" Murray, 22, and Derrick L. Powell, 21, both of Cockeysville; and James B. "Cisco" Wilder, 28, Mark D. Halley, 23, and William F. Heggins Jr., 24, all of Baltimore.

Northeast Baltimore's Four-by-Four neighborhood is tiny, named for its four north-south streets and four east-west streets. But authorities say it has long been a hub of violence and drug activity that had been taken over by a "clandestine operation. " On Thursday, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives led at least 150 law enforcement officers on raids at eight locations, and 10 people were indicted on federal charges accusing them of being part of a drug organization operating out of the neighborhood from at least June 2009 through August.

A federal grand jury has indicted 26-year-old Steven Blackwell — long suspected by Baltimore police of being a major drug kingpin on the city's east side — on a charge of running a heroin ring that stretched from New York to the Dominican Republic. Blackwell, a resident of Elkton, was indicted with Tahirah Carter, 34, of Cockeysville and Joy Edison, 24, of Elkton. All three face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the drug conspiracy, which prosecutors allege began in late 2003.