The FBI and Metropolitan Police Department broke up a major heroin and PCP ring Tuesday, arresting up to 21 suspects and seizing more than a quarter-million dollars in cash, according to law enforcement officials.
The two-year investigation began in the District and led law enforcement officials to Maryland, New York, California, Georgia and Missouri, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Law enforcement officials from the FBI and D.C. police will announce the results of the investigation and the daylong roundup today. Police, federal agents and prosecutors still were processing those arrested in the sting late Tuesday.
New D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier has vowed to go after those people who bring drugs into the city’s neighborhoods. Lanier, federal authorities and Prince George’s County police have vowed to work more closely together.
On Tuesday, scores of police and federal agents swooped down on homes and safe houses in the District, Fort Washington and Temple Hills. They seized at least 10 guns and large amounts of marijuana and heroin, authorities said. Law enforcement officials close to the operation said that at least 21 suspects were arrested.
The indictment accuses 19 people living in D.C. and Maryland of conspiring to distribute more than a kilogram each of PCP and heroin.
This is the second major bust of a drug ring this summer, authorities say.
Last month, federal and local law enforcement authorities arrested 12 alleged drug dealers in an early morning raid. That ring, Fourth Street Mob, sold crack, cocaine and marijuana in Southeast Washington, authorities said. That investigation took three years and resulted in a 75-count indictment.
