Final Defendant Sentenced in Heroin Conspiracy After 8 Years on the Run

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Corey Xavier Baldwin, 56, of Concord, North Carolina, was sentenced to 53 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute heroin.

Evidence presented to the court showed that Baldwin was one of 10 defendants charged in April 2014, following a drug trafficking investigation in the Columbia area. Six of the 10 defendants were arrested in April 2014, while four remained fugitives, including Baldwin. Baldwin remained a fugitive until his September 2022 arrest by the United States Marshals Service in Concord, North Carolina. Two other fugitives were arrested in 2017 in Texas, and one was arrested in May 2022 in Brooklyn, New York.

The 2013 investigation revealed that a group of individuals was obtaining heroin from various sources outside of South Carolina and then distributing it in the Midlands. Several packages sent through the mail, destined for Columbia, and containing heroin, were intercepted by law enforcement during the investigation. Evidence also showed that the co-defendants later traveled to New York to obtain heroin and transported it back to Columbia where it was distributed. Baldwin, who came to Columbia in 2013 after a prison sentence in Ohio for a 1994 aggravated murder conviction, participated by transporting money to New York during the trips to obtain heroin and assisted in the distribution of heroin in the Columbia area.  

Nine of Baldwin’s co-defendants earlier pled guilty to their role in the drug conspiracy here in South Carolina and were sentenced as follows:

• Eric Shawn Bradley of Columbia was sentenced to 210 months imprisonment with eight years of supervised release;
• Michael Glover of Columbia was sentenced to 324 months imprisonment with eight years of supervised release;
• Jihad Salahadeen Pollard of Columbia was sentenced to 121 months imprisonment with four years of supervised release;
• Kenneth Crawford, Jr. of Washington, D.C. and formerly of Columbia was sentenced to 120 months imprisonment with eight years of supervised release; 
• Charles Raheem Bradley of Columbia was sentenced to 57 months imprisonment with six years of supervised release;
• Anthony Troy Glover of Columbia was sentenced to 120 months imprisonment with eight years of supervised release;
• Larry Grover Bookman of Columbia was sentenced to 70 months imprisonment with six years of supervised release;
• Jessany Lyons of Far Rockaway, New York, was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment with three years of supervised release; and
• Dockim Deeshawn McKnight of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to 60 months imprisonment with four years of supervised release.

The New York heroin suppliers were charged and convicted by the United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York for their role in the drug conspiracy.

Senior United States District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr. sentenced Baldwin to 53 months imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

This OCDETF case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) High Intensity Drug Task Force, which was comprised of agents and officers from the DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Secret Service, Columbia Police Department, Richland County Sheriff’s Department, South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office, Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, and the Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s Office. The United States Marshals Service and the Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force-Charlotte Office assisted in locating the four fugitives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey D. Haynes prosecuted the case.

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