When Fairfax resident Greg Carper’s North Carolina cocaine source dried up, he sought help from his cousin Darron Broadus Jr., of Woodbridge, recently unsealed court documents said.
Broadus, 40, a longtime drug abuser, later admitted to authorities that he turned to his father, Darron Broadus Sr., who connected him with Antonio Zamarron, a Mexican citizen living in Texas who had “well-connected relatives” in his home country. What the men didn’t know was that a fifth man who joined their drug-dealing conspiracy in June 2007 was a Drug Enforcement Agency informant, according to court documents unsealed last week in Alexandria’s federal court. The informant, who gained their trust by buying nearly 7 pounds of cocaine between June 2007 and early 2008, later brought a DEA agent into the mix.
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When the Broaduses, Zamarron and Carper were finally taken into custody, authorities said, they were planning to sell the informant and agent 44 pounds of cocaine.
The Broaduses and Zamarron have pleaded guilty to cocaine distribution charges. The case against Carper still is pending.
As the informant and agent gained their trust, the deals got bigger and bigger, the Broaduses and Zamarron admitted. They gave the following account to authorities:
On June 19, 2007, when the informant first met with Carper, he purchased a quarter-ounce of cocaine. Later that month, the informant bought nearly 2 ounces of crack.
In July, Broadus Jr. was introduced to the informant as Carper’s supplier, and later that month, the informant introduced the undercover DEA agent to Carper and Broadus. The next month, Carper sold the informant nearly 1 pound of cocaine.
By October, the informant, Zamarron and the Broaduses were on South Padre Island, Texas — not far from where the older Broadus lived — discussing a 44-pound cocaine deal.
In December, the DEA agent and the informant met with Broadus Sr. in Brownsville, Texas and bought a little more than 2 pounds of cocaine. The deal was meant as a “test for larger multi-kilogram deals to follow.”
But the big drug deal never transpired because “members of the conspiracy simply became suspicious in early 2008 that they were in fact dealing with an undercover law enforcement officer,” federal prosecutors said in court documents.
Broadus Sr. was sentenced to 15 years in prison, his son to 11 1/2 years and Zamarron to 12 years. Carper’s attorney declined to comment.
