August 11, 2015

Brother and Girlfriend of Leader of Heroin Organization Plead Guilty

NORFOLK, VA—Jerald Outten, 26, and Sherita Nicks, 41, both of Portsmouth, Virginia, pleaded guilty today for their involvement in a massive heroin trafficking operation.

Jerald Outten is the brother of Alonzo Outten, the head of the Outten Organization. Alonzo Outten and six of his co-conspirators were indicted by a grand jury on July 8, 2015. In the early morning hours of July 14, 2015, search warrants were executed simultaneously on 14 properties in Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and Suffolk, Virginia, by more than 250 law enforcement officials from three states and the District of Columbia. Less than a month later, six of the seven of the co-conspirators have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, and possess with the intent to distribute heroin. Jermaine Jones and Garnett Brown pleaded guilty on July 29, 2015. Alonzo Outten pleaded guilty on July 30, 2015; and Troy Gay, responsible for distributing heroin that led to five overdoses, pleaded guilty on Aug. 6, 2015. Alonzo Outten’s girlfriend, Latina Jackson, pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug premises on July 29, 2015.

According to court documents, Jerald Outten was arrested on July 14, 2015, with 135 grams of raw heroin, a .40 caliber firearm, and $1,702 in cash.

According to court documents, Sherita Nicks exchanged a series of text messages with Alonzo Outten and her New York suppliers negotiating the purchase of heroin and cocaine. Ms. Nicks was subsequently arrested by Delaware State Police in November 2013 with over 500 grams of heroin and 168 grams of cocaine. Nicks was a wanted fugitive for her crimes in Delaware until she turned herself in to federal authorities on July 20, 2015.

Alonzo Outten, the leader of the organization from November 2013 to July 2015, managed the manufacture and distribution of between 30 and 90 kilograms of heroin (an estimated street value between $1.5 and $4.5 million dollars). The Outten Organization supplied kilogram amounts of heroin to at least two Bloods gang sets: the Imperial Gangsta Bloods led by “godfather” Chris Smith a/k/a “Killa” who pled guilty July 28, and the Gorilla Mafia Piru gang led by “godfather” Theodore Vann a/k/a “Flatline” who pled on June 25, 2015.

Jerald Outten faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison when he is sentenced on November 17, 2015. Sherita Nicks, who is originally from Brooklyn, New York, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison when she is sentenced on November 17, 2015.

Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Mark R. Herring, Attorney General of Virginia; and John S. Adams, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, made the announcement after the pleas were accepted by U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office and the Chesapeake Police Department with the assistance of the Portsmouth Police Department, the Virginia State Police, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Virginia Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney John F. Butler, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph E. DePadilla and Andrew C. Bosse are prosecuting the case.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:15-cr-80(Outten, et. al.); 2:15-cr-93(Jackson); 2:15cr7(Smith); and 2:15cr60(Vann).