Drug Ring

When Antonio Malone needed $15,000 to pay off the assailants who stormed his West Baltimore rowhouse and demanded money and heroin, a gang leader told him exactly where to go. Police say he was sent to a 12 t h floor apartment at The Redwood, the home of Felicia "Snoop" Pearson. The building on South Eutaw Street, within walking distance of the Inner Harbor and featuring a large ninth-floor deck and a 'round-the-clock fitness center, seems appropriate for an actress on the much-acclaimed HBO series "The Wire.

Two men were sentenced to 10 years in prison this week as federal prosecutors seek to close the books on a large illegal drug ring they say operated out of Latrobe Homes in East Baltimore. Judges sentenced Raymond Williams, 36, on Thursday, and Melvin Thompson, 31, on Tuesday. The two were charged in a case officials called Operation Usual Suspects that nabbed a total of 66 defendants in March 2011, including "The Wire" actress Felicia "Snoop" Pearson. Numerous other defendants have been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.

One of the leaders of a large drug distribution ring busted in Harford County in 2008 was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison. Tanya Valencia Mack, 40, of Abingdon, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. to 20 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for possession with the intent to distribute powder and crack cocaine. A federal jury convicted Mack on Feb. 14. She was a fugitive for 14 months, until her arrest on Dec. 8, 2009.

A 41-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Friday for his role in a heroin conspiracy that spread through three Maryland counties, federal prosecutors announced. Alvin Williams Jr., who used his home to process the drug which was distributed throughout the city as well as Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties, pleaded guilty in April, after two days of trial. To date, more than two dozen of the roughly 30 people indicted in the case have pleaded guilty. The drug ring was run by Christian Gettis, who described himself during a February sentencing hearing as a family man living a double life: secretly dealing drugs while holding down a job in retail.

Police raided a West Baltimore rowhouse yesterday morning and arrested an 18-year-old New York man and seized 3 ounces of crack cocaine, 1 ounce of heroin and more than $1,000 in cash, law enforcement officials reported.Officers with the Violent Crimes Task Force broke down a steel-grate door on a rowhouse in the 1900 block of W. Baltimore St. about 10 a.m. and arrested Herbert Lee Cephus, 18.Police said he was charged with two counts of drug distribution, a handgun violation and possession of a stolen handgun.

Residents of an East Baltimore neighborhood may feel safer today after police said they cracked an drug ring that reportedly sold $4 million a year worth of cocaine and heroin."

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 unsealed indictments yesterday against an Anne Arundel County man and his two sons, charging them with smuggling nearly 110 pounds of cocaine from southern Florida to Maryland as part of a busy drug ring they allegedly ran out of the family's Severna Park barbershop.The indictments came as prosecutors announced that three ring members had decided to plead guilty to their roles in running cocaine and marijuana up the East Coast to Anne Arundel and distributing the drugs to lower-level dealers in the county.

Loyalty cloaked one of the largest and most unlikely drug rings in Anne Arundel history through five years of police pursuit while it flourished in a Severna Park barbershop, authorities say.In the end being played out now, authorities say, those same ties brought down John Vincent Baumgarten Sr. and the home-grown "family" of drug dealers who terrorized a community and supplied the county with a steady flow of cocaine. One of their most trusted aides provided the information to put the group behind bars, officials say.As a strange story of barbering and drug-dealing unravels in a federal courtroom with chapters on cocaine transactions, arson, intimidation and a $25,000 contract for a hit, the quiet Magothy River community of Cape St. Claire near Annapolis has listened agog.

The wife of a man serving a 6 1/2 -year federal prison term for drug trafficking was sentenced yesterday to three years' probation for taking a minor role in what prosecutors call a huge drug operation.Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Michael E. Loney gave Melissa Ruth Rodriguez, 30, a one-year jail sentence but suspended it in favor of probation. The prosecution did not ask for incarceration.Rodriguez, of the 2100 block of Parksley Ave. in Baltimore, maintained that she was an unwitting participant in a drug ring alleged to have been operated from a Cape St. Claire home and a Severna Park barbershop.

A cocaine trafficking ring that for years distributed "vast amounts" of Honduran cocaine throughout the mid-Atlantic region has been busted, and three Maryland residents and 25 Virginia residents involved have been arrested, according to federal prosecutors. The drug ring, based in Northern Virginia, routinely paid couriers to fly into the United States from Honduras with cocaine stashed in shoes, decorative wooden frames and other "innocuous items" that would blend in with their luggage, according to a statement on the bust released Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

When Antonio Malone needed $15,000 to pay off the assailants who stormed his West Baltimore rowhouse and demanded money and heroin, a gang leader told him exactly where to go. Police say he was sent to a 12 t h floor apartment at The Redwood, the home of Felicia "Snoop" Pearson. The building on South Eutaw Street, within walking distance of the Inner Harbor and featuring a large ninth-floor deck and a 'round-the-clock fitness center, seems appropriate for an actress on the much-acclaimed HBO series "The Wire.

A Gwynn Oak man was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to sell between 1 and 3 kilograms of heroin, prosecutors said. Recco F. Beaufort, 52, was the principal transporter of heroin for a drug trafficking group that processed and distributed heroin less than 1,000 feet from a charter school, according to a statement from Maryland's U.S. Attorney's Office. Beaufort delivered heroin for a New Jersey man named Charles C. "Billy" Guy, 43, to a Baltimore man named Christian Gettis, 39, the statement said.

One of the leaders of a large drug distribution ring busted in Harford County in 2008 was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison. Tanya Valencia Mack, 40, of Abingdon, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. to 20 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for possession with the intent to distribute powder and crack cocaine. A federal jury convicted Mack on Feb. 14. She was a fugitive for 14 months, until her arrest on Dec. 8, 2009.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ordered Felicia "Snoop" Pearson held without bail Friday after a prosecutor alleged that she helped bankroll a large-scale heroin operation and that her career as an actress made her a flight risk. The assistant state's attorney said Pearson — who played a ruthless hitman on the HBO series "The Wire" and was among 63 people arrested during a sweep Thursday by city police and federal drug agents — was caught talking about money on a wiretap.

A Baltimore man, who authorities believe was part of a drug organization whose feuding with rivals might have led to several killings and the shooting of 12 people at a cookout this summer, was sentenced to four years in federal prison Wednesday for being a felon in possession of ammunition. Terrell Allen, 36, pleaded guilty in September, two months after agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives executed a search warrant on his Essex home on Punjab Drive and found 21 rounds of ammunition in a table next to his bed. The search warrant was connected to a series of incidents more than a year earlier.

More than 150 police officers swept through Armistead Gardens in Northeast Baltimore yesterday afternoon hoping to break up a ring of teen-age drug dealers who they said were relatives and friends of another drug gang busted eight months ago."I stood here on this very corner and watched the cops arrest the older brothers of the people we are locking up today," said police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier, standing at Quantril Way and Harper Way. "We are going to keep coming back here until this behavior stops."

An 18-year-old alleged drug lord, who police say recruited children as young as 11 and 12 to sell his cocaine, was arrested on his East Baltimore turf yesterday along with several of his henchmen as officers shut down what they estimated to be a $1 million-a-year drug ring.Anthony Jones, the alleged head of the organization, was arrested while sitting on the couch of a row house in the 1700 block of East Oliver Street. Last night, he was awaiting a bail hearing at which police were expected to request a $5 million cash bail.

After two full days of deliberation, a federal jury found three men guilty Thursday of multiple murders and of running a lengthy drug conspiracy known as "Special" in Northeast Baltimore. A second phase of the trial will begin Tuesday to determine whether two of the men -Melvin Gilbert, 34, and James Dinkins, 37 - should be put to death. A third defendant, Darron Goods, 24, faces a maximum of life in prison. All three men were found guilty of drug conspiracy, selling heroin, cocaine, crack and marijuana.