2 dozen members of rival DC crews charged in multi-agency drug bust

WASHINGTON - A massive multi-agency drug bust resulted in the arrests of 23 people as law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney for D.C. work to crack down on crime in the District. 

The arrests came over a span of just nine days, with nine of them happening Thursday morning. All were in connection to a Trinidad-neighborhood drug trafficking operation. 

Three of those arrested Thursday morning are alleged crew members who were charged in a 13-count indictment alleging a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, crack cocaine and heroin. Two additional suspects arrested Thursday are connected to a separate 13-count indictment involving fentanyl distribution and firearms charges. 

These arrests come a week after 15 others were taken into custody, 10 of whom are named in a 17-count indictment as alleged members of a drug trafficking crew operating near 21st Street and Maryland Avenue, NE, and who are charged with participation in a fentanyl and cocaine distribution conspiracy and additional firearms counts. 

One person charged in connection to the investigations was already being held in jail. 

U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves says this is the first set of arrests in two side-by-side investigations into ongoing feuds between rival crews in the Trinidad and Carver-Langston neighborhoods. 

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

Crews in these two areas, which are separated by less than a mile, have historically fought with one another. This year, alone, DC has seen mass shootings and homicides in the areas where they operate. 

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Graves made it clear Thursday that the goal is to remove these bad actors from the D.C. neighborhoods and help the communities feel safe again. 

"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," said 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."

Graves says Thursday’s arrests grew out of an investigation into an open-air drug market around the 1100 block of Raum Street, NE, in the Trinidad neighborhood that brought about 59 violent crime incidents and 119 bursts of gunfire from January to July 2023. 

"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 said. 

Authorities say 14 search warrants were executed in the Trinidad neighborhood on Thursday alone, with drugs, 15 guns and $126,000 confiscated.

Last week’s arrests were the result of the investigation into the Carver-Langston drug operation based in the area of 21st Street and Maryland Avenue, NE. 

While carrying out those arrests, law enforcement seized approximately 20 firearms, more than 150 cartridges of ammunition, over $23,000, and significant amounts of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, marijuana and liquid PCP.

The agencies involved in these two investigations include D.C. Police, the DEA, FBI and others. 

"Through relentless collaboration, the FBI and our federal and local partners dismantled two violent drug trafficking organizations that were based less than a mile from each other," said FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Scott of the Washington Field Office’s Criminal and Cyber Division "We vow to continue to work together to protect communities from crews who peddle drugs and wield illegal firearms."

In Thursday’s announcement, Graves vowed to continue the collaborative work that led to the massive bust, all with the aim of making D.C.’s streets safer.