Washington, D.C. – Two leaders of a major PCP drug trafficking organization have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Perschini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Shawn Johnson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Washington Division Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and George Walsh, U.S. Marshal for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (USMS), announced today.

Helery Price, 45, of Southeast Washington, D.C., and Ernest Glover, 47, of Northwest Washington, D.C., both received mandatory terms of life imprisonment on Thursday, August 7, 2008, before the Honorable Ellen S. Huvelle, U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia. Also sentenced yesterday was a third member of the organization, Anthony Suggs, 40, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, who received 20 years of imprisonment and 10 years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term. The investigation arose from a joint law enforcement operation targeting the narcotics trade in the Washington, D.C. area. This operation resulted in the indictment of 26 individuals who were responsible for trafficking Phencyclidine, also known as PCP, as well as heroin, by transporting it to Washington, D.C., and selling it in the Washington, D.C. area between 2005 and 2007.

On June 12, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted all 26 defendants with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute one kilogram or more of PCP, and 19 of those defendants with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin. The joint investigation by the FBI, MPD, and USMS, involved five wiretaps and approximately 20 search warrants. On March 27, 2007, law enforcement recovered 7.7 kilograms of PCP from one of Suggs's residences located in Northeast Washington, D.C.

The defendants were tried by a federal jury earlier this year before Judge Huvelle. According to the evidence, Suggs received multiple gallon quantities of PCP from Ernest Glover’s brother, and then distributed wholesale quantities of the PCP to Helery Price and Ernest Glover. On March 13, 2008, the jury convicted the defendants of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of PCP.

In announcing the sentences, U.S. Attorney Taylor, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Perschini, DEA Special Agent in Charge Johnson, MPD Chief Lanier, and U.S. Marshal Walsh praised the efforts of all the law enforcement officers who participated in the investigation. Specifically commended were FBI Special Agents John Bevington, Stephen Naugle, Ryan Pardee, Brian Mumford, Tim Ervin, and William McDermott; MPD Investigators Michael Eames, George Singletary, Thomas Edelin, Anthony Washington; and USMS Deputies Thomas O’Brien, Richard Kelly, and Christopher Street. They also cited the superior efforts of U.S. Attorney’s Office Supervisory Paralegal Specialist Mary Downing, Paralegal Specialists Kim Hall and James Mazzitelli, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William J. O’Malley, Jr., Anthony Scarpelli, and John Han, who prosecuted the case.