Three More Men Sentenced to Lengthy Prison Terms For Participation in Armed PCP Drug Distribution Ring

            WASHINGTON – Three men have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for their roles in an armed narcotics organization that trafficked phencyclidine (PCP) in Southeast Washington. The defendants were arrested in 2013 after a local resident walked into the Seventh District Police station and reported that the armed defendants had forcibly taken over his apartment in the Woodberry Village Apartment complex to distribute PCP.

            The sentences were announced today by Acting U.S. Attorney Vincent H. Cohen, Jr. and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            Marquette Boston, 28, of Washington, D.C., was found guilty of possession with intent to distribute PCP in March 2015 following a nine-week jury trial in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.  Ira Adona, 24, of Fort Washington, Md., pled guilty in April 2014 to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute PCP and attempted assault with a deadly or dangerous weapon in a related case in D.C. Superior Court.  Breal Hicks, 25, also pled guilty in April 2014 to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute PCP.

            The Honorable Richard J. Leon sentenced Boston on Sept. 4, 2015, to eight years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. He sentenced Adona on Sept. 29, 2015, to a total of 11 ½ years in prison, to be followed by eight years of supervised release. Finally, he sentenced Hicks on Sept. 30, 2015, to a total of seven years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. Adona was sentenced on the related charge by D.C. Superior Court Judge Patricia A. Broderick on Jan. 30, 2015.

            On Sept. 1, 2015, co-defendants Dawayne Brown, 21, and Keith Matthews, 24, were sentenced to 14 years and nine years of incarceration, respectively. One other co-defendant, Conovia Eddie, has entered a guilty plea and is still awaiting sentencing.

            The defendants were indicted in 2013 following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department of violent distributors of PCP in the Woodberry Village area of Southeast Washington. The investigation revealed that from May 2012 through April 2013, the defendants and fellow 23^rd Street crew members (also known as “Little Mexico”) worked together to distribute PCP in the Woodberry Village area by taking over apartments from the residents and selling narcotics from the safety of these apartments.  The crew members were often armed with firearms, and they sold large amounts of PCP in the local area.  The crew members also regularly exposed young children to narcotics and firearms.

            The investigation revealed that in January 2013, crew members violently took over the apartment of a resident at gunpoint to facilitate PCP sales, and that defendant Brown used an 11-year-old child to facilitate his drug distribution.  Crew members thereafter took control and used the resident’s apartment against his will, and they stored numerous firearms and bottles of PCP in his apartment.  Despite being intimidated and in fear, the resident reported the defendants’ crimes by walking into the Seventh District Station to report that the defendants had taken over his apartment and that they were in possession of a large quantity of PCP and a number of firearms.   Police immediately responded to the resident’s apartment and found Brown inside the apartment with three loaded firearms, including an Uzi-style firearm with 19 rounds of ammunition, and multiple bottles of PCP.

            In a subsequent search warrants conducted in March and April 2013, MPD uncovered numerous other apartments being used by crew members to distribute narcotics and they seized multiple bottles of PCP, more than eight firearms, body armor, and over $3,500 in cash.  In one search warrant, Adona and Hicks were found inside an apartment with three loaded firearms and various narcotics, including multiple bottles of PCP.  In another warrant, Boston was found inside an apartment with a loaded gun, military-grade body armor, and multiple bottles of PCP.  Since the first arrest of the 23^rd Street members in January, 2013, more than a dozen 23^rd Street drug traffickers, many of whom are known to be violent, have been identified, arrested and charged with narcotics, firearms and/or related criminal conduct.

            In announcing the sentences, Acting U.S. Attorney Cohen and Chief Lanier commended the work of the agents, officers and investigators from the Seventh Police District who investigated the case. They also cited the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, including Paralegal Specialists Crystal Barclay, Tony Griffith, and Daphne (Teresa) Nelson; the Litigation Support Unit; Tanya Via, Debra Cannon, and Wanda Queen of the Victim/Witness Assistance Unit, Criminal Investigators Durand Odom and Nelson Rhone, and former intern Daniella Sterns. Finally, they acknowledged the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tejpal S. Chawla and George Eliopoulos, and Kathryn Rakoczy, who prosecuted the cases.