Leader of Local Narcotics Ring, His Lieutenant, and Four of Their Street-Level Dealers Plead Guilty to Federal Drug-Trafficking Charges

WASHINGTON—Rex Pelote, Sr., the leader of a local narcotics ring that operated in the District of Columbia, his lieutenant, and four of their street-level dealers have pled guilty to federal conspiracy drug-trafficking charges, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the Washington Field Office, announced today.

Late yesterday afternoon, Rex Pelote, Sr., 44, of the 800 block of 21 st Street, NE, Washington, D.C., pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable James Robertson to conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin. Pelote led a heroin distribution ring that operated in the Langston Terrace Public Housing Complex, which is in Northeast D.C. in the area bounded by the following streets: 21st Street, G Street, 24th Street, and H Street. Pelote’s lieutenant in the conspiracy, Edward T. “Bootsy” Farley, 47, of the 2100 block of H Street, NE, also pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin.

Several hours earlier, just prior to commencement of jury selection on January 6, 2009, for the trial for all six defendants, four of Pelote’s street-level dealers also pled guilty. Charles “Black” McRae, 57, no fixed address, Gerald “Orleans” Anderson, 40, of the 700 block of 24 th Street, NE, Dannie “Smiley” Jones, 54, of the 2700 block of Martin Luther King Avenue, SE, and Cornelius “Chuck” Farley, 40, of the 1200 block of Hamilton Street, NE, pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin.

All of the defendants will be sentenced on March 18, 2009, before Judge Robertson. Pelote and Edward Farley are expected to receive sentences of seventeen (17) years and fifteen (15) years, respectively. McRae faces a sentence of six (6) years, Anderson and Jones will each likely receive sentences of five (5) years, and Cornelius Farley will likely receive a sentence of three (3) years.

According to the evidence the government would have presented at trial, between at least April 2007 and April 2008, Pelote controlled an organization that was responsible for smuggling heroin into the District of Columbia, processing and packaging that heroin, and selling it in Langston Terrace, NE. Edward Farley assisted Pelote in distributing the drugs to various runners for streetlevel distribution. Using various “stash houses” in and around the Langston Terrace public housing complex, the organization processed the raw heroin into street-level heroin. Evidence recovered from search warrants of those stash houses included: secret drug containers (e.g., false-bottom cans), hundreds of small, empty ziplock bags, thousands of dollars in cash, and numerous bags of heroin.

The government was also prepared to present audio and video evidence of multiple undercover drug buys from various members of the conspiracy. Further, a court-ordered wiretap revealed telephone conversations between Pelote and his co-conspirators in which they coordinated their extensive drug trafficking activities.

This prosecution is the result of an investigation initiated in early 2007 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Metropolitan Police Department’s Safe Streets Task Force into the trafficking of illegal narcotics in the Langston Terrace area of Northeast Washington, D.C. To date, nine (9) persons have been convicted as part of the investigation. This investigation was supported by the Baltimore-Washington High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area as well as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

In announcing the verdicts, U.S. Attorney Taylor, FBI Assistant Director in Charge

Persichini, and Chief Lanier commended the following law enforcement and prosecution team members:

Federal Bureau of Investigation: Jennifer Cejpek, Shawn Matthews, Ndubisi Nwachuku, and Scott Turner; Metropolitan Police Department: Michael Derian, Earl DeLauder, John Haines, Justin Linville, Barbara Lyles (ret.), Lavinia Quigley, and King Watts; and U.S. Attorney’s Office: Support staff members Nadiyyah Ishman and Catherine O’Neal, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys B. Patrick Costello, John Han, and Darlene Soltys.