Thirteen people indicted on federal drug charges in District – The Washington Post

A nearly year-long investigation focused on the District’s Shaw neighborhood ended this week with more than 20 arrests and the seizures of cocaine, fentanyl and 11 firearms, according to law enforcement authorities.

Federal prosecutors said 13 of the people targeted in the Northwest Washington neighborhood — between the ages of 29 and 54 — were indicted on drug conspiracy charges in U.S. District Court. Ten were arrested Wednesday, two were in jail on other charges and one is being sought.

Police said nine other people were arrested during operations on Wednesday and Thursday, most on gun and drug charges. Six of the guns were taken off the streets on Wednesday.

“We’re talking about violent offenders who no longer will be targeting this neighborhood with unnecessary and tragic violence,” D.C. police Inspector Lashay Makal, who heads the violent crime suppression division, said at a news conference on Thursday in Shaw.

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Authorities said the crew was centered at 7th and O streets NW, near the Kennedy Recreation Center, although they alleged drug sales and violence spread outward into Truxton Circle and LeDroit Park.

Police said the investigation was dubbed “Uptown Express.” The authorities did not discuss specific instances of violence. Court documents filed in U.S. District Court in D.C. on Thursday also did not provide many details. Search warrants were served at more than 20 locations in D.C. and in Maryland.

Crews based at 7th and O streets have been around for years, with beefs stretching back to the deadly crack cocaine era in the late 1980s and early 1990s that made the District the nation’s murder capital.

Violence has eased over the years as the neighborhood gentrified, although shootings, sometimes deadly, have persisted.

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Wayne A. Jacobs, the special agent in charge of the criminal and cyber division of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said “continued violence and fatal overdoses” from fentanyl and other drugs put this suspected crew on law enforcement’s radar.

He said that members showed “disregard for their community and for human life.” With the arrests, Jacobs said, “Our city is a little bit safer today.”

Authorities said they do not believe the fentanyl allegedly sold by this crew is connected to overdoses from fentanyl batches that earlier this year killed nine people in Southwest D.C. and killed 10 people in Northeast.

But police said they would test the drugs seized in Shaw and compare them with drugs in those other fatal incidents. Fentanyl is a particularly lethal synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times more powerful than heroin.

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) joined authorities at the news conference and described residents of the area as “rightfully frustrated and angry by the violence here.”

She added, “It is time for the rest of the justice system to ensure those who bring harm to our communities be held accountable.”

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