US Attorney for Washington D.C. Jeanine Pirro and law enforcement officials held a press briefing after an operation targeting a Washington D.C. drug trafficking group.
00:00Hi everybody, how are you? Good to have you here today.
00:29Good to be here. Anybody have a sense of humor today? All right. You can get closer, I'm
00:42not going to bite anybody. One year ago today, my office along with the Washington Field Office
00:56of the FBI began an investigation stemming from the sale of PCP and fentanyl in Knox Place,
01:04Anacostia. This investigation is the culmination of what we call a Title III wiretap. Last week,
01:14on August 21st, my office indicted eight individuals for PCP and fentanyl trafficking as well as
01:24conspiracy. The individuals who've been indicted are the following. Two are from California,
01:30one is from Baltimore, and five of them are from the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. Now this morning,
01:38in a very sophisticated and almost flawlessly run operation, the FBI, Washington Field Office,
01:47along with my office, executed approximately 20 residential search warrants across DC, Maryland,
01:55and Los Angeles. And I want to thank the Metropolitan Police and DEA for assisting us this morning in DC,
02:03Maryland, and Los Angeles as well. Now at present, there are 12 individuals who have been arrested.
02:10Seven of the eight indicted individuals. There is still one fugitive on a sealed indictment. Five additional
02:20defendants have been arrested this morning as a result of the operation. The facts. The DC-based drug
02:28traffickers sold PCP and fentanyl in and around the 2900 block of Knox Place Southeast. You may or may not be
02:38familiar with that area, but it is a neighborhood that has experienced an inordinate amount of violent
02:46crime, including five homicides, at least that we know of, with other violent crimes in the past year. The DC-based
02:56narcotics traffickers sourced their narcotics through Baltimore, and there was a co-conspirator who in turn was
03:06importing narcotics from California. So this included a 17-gallon, that's what I said, a 17-gallon shipment of PCP that was
03:19intercepted outside of Topeka, Kansas earlier this year. And today's seizures and search warrants included 18 firearms that you see in
03:33front of me right now, including an AR-style rifle, a shotgun, a Draco-style pistol, as well as, I don't know if we have this in
03:43front of you, in addition to the weapon seized, a fentanyl pill press. And we also seized approximately two kilos of
03:52narcotics that include powdered fentanyl, cocaine, as well as cocaine-based crack. The crimes, conspiracy to distribute
04:03narcotics, a felon in possession of a weapon, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, and one individual
04:13defendant was an alien who was deported three times, and he was in possession of a firearm. He's also charged with
04:23illegal reentry. Now, we use Title III to identify the suppliers, one individual by the name of Thomas Hancock from
04:33Baltimore. The source of his supply was an individual from Los Angeles. And this is what the violent crime and
04:43narcotics section, narcotics trafficking section of my office does on a daily basis. And what we do are long-term
04:53investigations, and they have a very maximum impact given the amount of time that we invest in these cases. Doug
05:02Hennig, to my left, is in charge of the violent crime and narcotics trafficking section. What we do is we work our
05:10way up the chain, which is what all prosecutors look to do, and we did just that. We got some major, prolific drug
05:19dealers, based not just on what we saw, but our undercovers were buying an incredible amount of drugs, which tells us that the
05:31sale of drugs to people in the communities in the D.C., Virginia, Maryland area was an incredible amount. So, I would
05:43like to identify now for you the individuals who have been arrested. Thomas Hancock, 43 of Baltimore, Maryland. Eric Prather, 43 of
05:53Washington, D.C., Reginald Lasseter, 39 of D.C., Leonard Edwards, 52 of D.C., Daryl Riley, 39 of Washington, D.C., Michael
06:05Thomas, 49 of Los Angeles, and Sarda Smith of Oxon Hill, Maryland. Now, in addition, we have five other
06:15individuals that we picked up, sorry about that, pursuant to what we saw today. They are Jerica, Missouri, 35,
06:24Melvina Rawlings, 40, Damian Petty, 54, Antoinette Lane, 64, along with Terrence Boyd, 42. This is what the president is
06:38talking about. This is part of our cleaning up the district and the nation's capital. And although it
06:46didn't happen in one night, these arrests, all 12 of them and the seizure of all these weapons indicate the
06:54seriousness of crime that is occurring in our community. And we need all the help that we can
07:00get to make sure that we make the arrests and that we continue going into court with solid cases where we
07:07can get convictions and appropriate sentences. And I want to thank all my partners here, as I said, from
07:14DEA and the MPD and Chief Smith is here from the Metropolitan Police. But I particularly want to
07:21thank Phil Banks from the Washington field office, the ADEC in charge of the FBI, who was with us from day one
07:30on this long running investigation.
07:35Thank you, U.S. Attorney Pirro. I'm Phil Bates. I'm the acting assistant director in charge of the FBI's
07:41Washington field office. I'm grateful to be here with you today to highlight an example of the FBI's work to
07:47crush violent crime in our communities. Over the last year, the FBI led an investigation into this violent drug trafficking
07:55ring based in Southeast D.C. The subjects distributed large amounts of fentanyl, cocaine, and PCP throughout the region.
08:04Their network stretched from coast to coast, as Judge Pirro outlined, including couriers and suppliers in
08:11Baltimore and in California. Today, alongside our federal and local partners, we executed searches and arrests at
08:1820 locations in D.C., Maryland, and in California. We arrested 12 individuals and seized over 2 kilograms of
08:27narcotics, a pill press more than $50,000, and 18 guns. That's 12 violent drug traffickers and 18 firearms that are no
08:39longer on our streets. These arrests are the result of collaboration between the FBI's Washington field office, our
08:46partners at the DEA, and our partners at the Metropolitan Police Department. This also includes our FBI offices in
08:53Baltimore, Richmond, and Los Angeles, who provided valuable support to this investigation. With this
09:00morning's arrest, our communities are safer than they were yesterday. By combining our local and federal resources and
09:09sharing crucial intelligence, we can rid our neighborhoods of illicit drugs and dismantle dangerous drug
09:16trafficking organizations. We vow to continue to target drug traffickers and violent offenders to ensure our
09:24nation's capital is safe for its residents, the workers who come here each day, the members of our community, and the visitors who enjoy
09:32this city. Thank you.
09:39All right. Questions? Yes, sir?
09:41Judge, on the topic of violent crime, the President said today that anybody who murders somebody in Washington, D.C., will have the death
09:45sounds to go against them. Is this something that is going to happen in your office?
09:50Well, absolutely. I think that when the President came in, the Attorney General indicated that we would be seeking the death penalty in
09:58appropriate cases. And obviously, there is a whole process that we go through. And a couple of weeks ago, with the
10:05capital murder, the murder of the two individuals from the Capitol Museum, we indicated what that process is. It's a very
10:15deliberative process. But we will absolutely be following the President's directive. And it ultimately is in the hands of the
10:23Attorney General who makes that decision. Just a follow-up, Judge. D.C. has abolished the death penalty. That
10:30capital case was a federal case. When we're talking about murder one and other cases in D.C. How does your office
10:36stand to get around that issue and the fact that the judges are also potentially unlikely to want to impose that?
10:43Well, I think it's really up to a jury as opposed to the judges. And I think that what the public is seeing is that
10:50Washington has been far too violent. One of the most violent cities, unfortunately, in the country. And it is time that we
10:59recognize that law and order is back in D.C. And that we will use all legal sanctions and sentences as called for by law.
11:10Your office has had trouble in the last couple of weeks with an alleged assault case having the grand jury refuse to
11:19indict on the charges. Does that give you any sense of how juries in this city are going to deal with the crackdown that you're
11:29doing? And also in reference to the president's announcement on death penalty, D.C.
11:35hasn't had a death penalty trial since 2003 and the jury rejected it. So how do you plan to deal with that aspect of your crackdown?
11:46Well, first of all, to answer your last question, we're going to follow the law, the deliberative process, present the evidence,
11:52recognize that the law does permit us to do this, whether D.C. is inclined to do it or not. It's not a political issue.
12:00This is an issue that is, you know, sanctioned by the law and gives us the power to do that. If not us, then who?
12:08And, you know, as it relates to grand juries, I mean, the only thing that I can say is we are prosecutors. We are the tip of the spear.
12:17We are the ones who take these cases into court, and the burden is on us to prove these cases. And we welcome that burden beyond a
12:25reasonable doubt. Sometimes a jury will buy it and sometimes they won't. So be it. That's the way the process works. Yes, sir.
12:34Justice Puro. No, I'm a judge. I'm not a justice. I'll never be a justice.
12:39Some justice. Thank you.
12:42We see these violent traffickers that were taken off the street. This juxtaposed a little bit of the fact that there was a murder in D.C., in Anacostia last night.
12:52Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah.
12:54Can you weigh in on that a little bit? We saw, you know, the president, vice president, a number of different individuals saying that the streets have never been safer.
13:02But there was a murder last night.
13:04You know, I have to give the president kudos for everything he's doing. No one has bothered to bring in the resources of law enforcement, federal and local.
13:16I mean, the D.E.A., the FBI, you know, the marshals, the park police, the Capitol police, the the Metro police.
13:24I'm sure I'm leaving someone out. But that is a scenario that we should all be grateful for because it puts us in a position of making us safer.
13:33Are people going to commit crimes? Of course they are. But I think everyone in this room knows that there is a small percentage of individuals who commit the violent crimes and who repeatedly do it, especially in an area where, you know, there's no such thing, you know, as bail.
13:50And so what we've got to do is try to identify who those people are, take them out of the community based upon their criminal acts and the law and the evidence to make this place safe.
14:04Are we going to make it perfectly safe? You know, God, I hope we can.
14:08But no one other than President Trump has put the resources, the effort, the energy into doing this.
14:15How much more are we going in this?
14:18I have one question. I have one about D.C. Crump. Just a question in general.
14:22We've heard you say before and we've heard that at the paternal or police say we need more officers, about 600 shy of what we were when our homicides were 80 here in D.C.
14:31But the president also has said conversely, hey, 3,100 is enough officers. But now you're seeing a surge of federal officers and we're seeing things like this.
14:39How do you respond to that sort of like cognitive dissonance between him saying, you know, you've got more than enough officers, but this seems to be yielding things?
14:46Well, you know, I leave it up to the president to make the decision as to how many people and how many officers we need to put in this district.
14:53I mean, what we're trying to do is, you know, it's almost like it's I don't want to use the word, so I'm not going to use it.
15:02But we are a microcosm of the country. And if this is what it takes to clean up crime and I was devastated this morning when I found out there was a homicide last night because we were counting every day, every day, no homicide.
15:17Are people going to be evil? You're damn right. They're going to be evil. Are they going to continue to commit crime? Absolutely.
15:22But we're not in every house. We're not in every, you know, in every store. But we're going to do the best thing that we can do.
15:28And the president is doing just that and providing resources. What the upshot and what the final analysis is, is up to the president.
15:36This is sort of a process question. Oh, these are the ones I hate.
15:43But, you know, there's been a lot of announcement of arrests and a lot of numbers coming in both of the White House.
15:48Yeah. And then also numbers of people who were found to be illegal. Right.
15:52And that's the case of one of these guys here. When somebody is found in the district, part of this is here illegally, but it's committed some sort of crime.
16:00Yeah, I know the question. It depends. It depends.
16:05You know, I don't know if you would answer that differently. I mean, you know, sometimes we will go forward with the case and other times they'll be deported immediately.
16:15You know, it depends on the severity of the case. It depends on the situation.
16:19You know, right now, this guy who legally entered and is part of a huge drug trafficking conspiracy, as you can see from this, you know, I imagine he's going to be deported.
16:30Yes.
16:31But then he's been deported three other times. So you tell me what should happen. Should he be deported or should he be put in jail?
16:38I'm not paid enough to make this.
16:40You know what?
16:41I'll leave it at that. Okay, everybody.
16:45I have a question for the acting deputy director, if you have a moment.
16:48Come on, Phil. You take it.
16:49Well, the first question is for you, Judge.
16:50Why?
16:51About body cams. There's a recent call for the National Guard to wear body cams. Do you think, given the fact that MPD wears them, your office relies on body cam footage in cases?
17:00Sometimes it's critical. Do you think the National Guard members who are here should be having to wear body cam footage given their de facto law enforcement role?
17:09Well, I don't know what the arguments are, pro and con on that. I really haven't been involved. But I think the more transparency there is in criminal cases, the better off we all are.
17:22Do you want to answer that? No, huh?
17:24I had a separate question for you, sir. The Washington field office is also putting officers out on the street right now, given the surge.
17:32Were the same officers who were investigating this case throughout the past year and especially in the last three weeks, some of the ones who were also on the street working literally 24-7?
17:42Yeah, we have agents from across the office and across the region who are working to supplement our partners on the task force on a daily basis.
17:51I won't get into the specifics of who worked which investigation. But yes, we're supplementing and resourcing the various teams that are out on the streets on a daily basis.
18:02No, I think we're done. Okay. Thank you. You want to take a picture of the guns? Thank you, everybody. What'd you say?
18:14Are people being sent to Maryland? Are people being sent to Maryland or if they become overcrowded?
18:19The last thing I'm worried about is an overcrowded jail. Okay?
18:23The thing I'm worried about is the people in D.C. who feel like they're in jail because the criminals are running around and they don't have a choice to walk the streets or come out of their apartments.
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