Multi-Agency Drug Bust Leads to Charges Against 24 Members of Rival DC Gangs

Washington – In an attempt to combat crime in the District, police enforcement and the U.S. Attorney for D.C. collaborated on a large-scale multi-agency narcotics bust that led to the arrest of 23 individuals.

Nine days passed between the arrests, nine of which took place on Thursday morning. All of them had a connection to a drug trafficking ring operating in a barrio in Trinidad.

A 13-count indictment accusing three of the people arrested on Thursday morning are purported crew members who were involved in a conspiracy to distribute heroin, crack cocaine, and fentanyl.

Two more defendants were detained on Thursday and are linked to a different 13-count indictment that includes allegations related to the distribution of fentanyl and guns.

These arrests occurred one week after the apprehension of fifteen more people, ten of whom are charged with participating in a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and cocaine, as well as additional counts about firearms.

They are identified in a 17-count indictment as purported members of a drug trafficking group operating close to 21st Street and Maryland Avenue, NE.

One person was already detained in jail after being charged about the investigations.

According to U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, these are the initial arrests made as part of two parallel investigations into continuous disputes between competing crews in the Trinidad and Carver-Langston areas.

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Graves stated, “No place is naturally dangerous.” “Places become dangerous because a relatively small number of people who live or come into the neighborhood and commit crimes.”

Less than a mile separates these two places, where crews have previously engaged in combat. Mass shootings and homicides have occurred in the regions where they operate in Washington, DC, just this year.

The intention, as stated by Graves on Thursday, is to get these criminals out of the D.C. neighborhoods and restore a sense of safety to the locals.

“The data tells us that a relatively small group of people in our community are the primary drivers of gun violence and that the bulk of the gun violence is clustered in a relatively few blocks of our city,” stated U.S. Attorney Graves.

“We know that proactively removing these people from our streets is the most significant thing we can do as prosecutors to impact violent crime trends.”

According to Graves, the investigation into an open-air drug market near the 1100 block of Raum Street, NE, in the Trinidad area resulted in 59 violent crime situations and 119 gunshot bursts between January and July 2023, which is when the arrests on Thursday happened.

“Typically these are people operating drug markets, often while armed with guns, either engaging in violence or their activities are a magnet for violence,” Graves stated.

Authorities claim that on Thursday alone, 14 search warrants were carried out in the Trinidad neighborhood, resulting in the seizure of drugs, 15 firearms, and $126,000.

The Carver-Langston drug business, which operated in the vicinity of 21st Street and Maryland Avenue, NE, was the subject of the investigation that led to the arrests last week.

Law officers confiscated about 20 guns, over 150 rounds of ammunition, over $23,000, and sizable quantities of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and liquid PCP throughout making those arrests.

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The D.C. Police, the DEA, the FBI, and other agencies are among those engaged in these two investigations.

“The FBI and our federal and local partners dismantled two violent drug trafficking organizations that were based less than a mile from each other through relentless collaboration,” FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Scott of the Criminal and Cyber Division of the Washington Field Office said.

“We vow to continue to work together to protect communities from crews who peddle drugs and wield illegal firearms.”

Graves said in Thursday’s statement to carry on the cooperative efforts that resulted in the significant bust, all to enhance street safety in D.C.