Fourteen suspects have been charged as part of a crack and powder cocaine trafficking scheme where dealers sold drugs near a Washington, D.C., elementary school — often in front of young children in broad daylight amid an open-air drug market, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
A federal indictment charges each of the 14 defendants with conspiracy to distribute 280 grams or more of cocaine base and 500 grams or more of cocaine within 1,000 feet of Hendley Elementary School in the city’s Washington Highlands neighborhood, an area plagued by crime, authorities said.
The drugs were routinely sold in the presence of school‑aged children walking to and from school, exposing them to persistent illegal activity and risking normalizing dangerous conduct, federal prosecutors said.
“This is poison that is being peddled during the day within feet of a schoolyard where our children learn, play, and grow,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told reporters. “Selling cocaine near our kids isn’t just illegal. It is an attack on the most vulnerable in our society. It endangers the children.”
“It destroys families, and it fuels the violence and the chaos in the district that we have suffered for far too long,” she added.
The suspects, who were arrested Wednesday as part of a two-year operation, were identified as Tevin Moody, 32; Geraldo Landy, 38; Norman Moore, 36; Lenon Wright, 34; Ali McShay, 31; Lonnell Thomas, 27; Marquette Paris, 34; Jeremiah Prince, 21; Joseph Moore, 43; Raekwon Womak, 21; Kivarrie Greene, 22; De’Lonte Jackson, 32; Derrick Manuel, 34; and 25-year-old Malik Heard.
In addition to the drug charges, Kivarrie Greene is also charged with unlawful possession of firearms.
Throughout the investigation, authorities executed multiple search warrants at locations associated with the suspects and recovered 28 firearms, the Justice Department said. Agents also recovered 2.4 kilograms of crack cocaine, one kilogram of powder cocaine, 29 grams of fentanyl and 12 pounds of marijuana.
“They have access to illicit drugs. They have access to firearms,” said Christopher Goumenis, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent-in-Charge for the agency’s Washington Division. “They’re violent criminals, and most of them are recidivists in these communities.”
On Wednesday, authorities executed 19 search warrants and made 20 arrests across Washington, D.C., and Maryland of members of a violent street gang that operated on 4th Street, the FBI said. The crew engaged in the trafficking of guns and drugs like fentanyl and cocaine, authorities said.
Along with other neighborhood-based street crews, they are the primary drivers of violence in the city, officials said, noting that they have committed a litany of crimes, including armed carjackings, shootings, robberies and murder.
In one image released by the Justice Department, a woman is shown accompanied by a 5-year-old girl while purchasing cocaine before taking the child by her hand and walking off, Pirro said.
“Now, as far as I’m concerned, that’s a crime,” Pirro said. “It’s one thing to have a prosecution of dirtbags who were selling drugs in the area of schools, 1,000 feet from a damn elementary school. It’s a whole other level of crime, as far as I’m concerned, for this woman to bring a child to a cocaine sale and then walk along with the child while she’s got the drugs on her.”
Pirro said she plans to ask the City Council to enact a law to address child endangerment, which she noted the city currently lacks.
Authorities observed at least 165 drug buys during the course of the operation, Pirro said. She added that she was optimistic authorities will make a difference in D.C. communities plagued by crime and drugs, given the scope of the arrests.
