AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC at 410-209-4885

October 25, 2006

MEMBER OF A SEVERN STREET DRUG OPERATION CONVICTED OF COCAINE TRAFFICKING AND FIREARMS CHARGES

“Pioneer City Boy” Faces a Mandatory Life Sentence

BALTIMORE, Maryland - A federal jury today convicted Calvin Ignatius Savoy, age 29, of Severn, Maryland for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and use of a firearm in relation to a drug-trafficking crime, including the shooting of Anne Arundel County police officer William Hicks, announced United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to testimony given at the trial which began on October 16, 2006, from 2002 until September 2005, Savoy and his co-conspirators used residences on Arwell Court, Pioneer Drive and other locations to package and store cocaine and cocaine base (crack) for street sales in a community known as “Pioneer City” in Severn, Maryland. Trial testimony showed that drug dealing operations took place in communities known as Still Meadows, Meade Village and Pioneer City. Members “tagged” or marked the walls, streets and mailboxes of the communities to warn people not to cooperate with law enforcement. Members used violence against competing drug traffickers in open view of the community to deter citizens from cooperating with police or the sale of drugs. Members sold firearms to undercover Anne Arundel County police officers.

Trial testimony also showed that Savoy was a crack dealer on the streets of Pioneer City and on September 11, 2004, Savoy shot Anne Arundel County police officer William Hicks once in the arm in the 1600 block of Annapolis Road in Odenton. Officer Hicks has since returned to full duty.

Savoy faces a mandatory term of life imprisonment on the cocaine distribution conspiracy charge because of three previous narcotics convictions, and an additional maximum sentence of life in prison consecutive to the drug conspiracy prison term for discharging a firearm in connection with the shooting of the Anne Arundel County police officer. U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis scheduled sentencing for January 5, 2007.

Savoy’s co-defendants and fellow members of the Pioneer Boys: Lowell Joseph Braswell, age 22, of LaPlata; Tony Maurice Horne, Jr., age 25, of Glen Burnie; Laronte Lee Richardson, age 20, of Baltimore; Troemaine Herbert Storey, age 27, of Glen Burnie; Paul Eugene Turner, Jr., age 31, of Severn and Jerome Otto Waters, Jr., age 26, of Annapolis, all pleaded guilty to cocaine and crack cocaine conspiracy charges and face maximum sentences of twenty-five years to life imprisonment.

United States Attorney Rosenstein praised the investigative work of a federal task force, which included the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Anne Arundel County Police Department and the Annapolis Police Department.. Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorney Andrea L. Smith and Anne Arundel County Assistant State’s Attorney M. Virginia Miles, who are prosecuting the case.