WASHINGTON – Keith Jones, 27, of Washington D.C., pleaded guilty today for participating in a long-running drug trafficking conspiracy that distributed fentanyl throughout the District of Columbia, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Scott of the FBI Washington Field Office.

            Jones, a member of the violent No Rats Allowed crew, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols to conspiring to distribute 40 grams or more of a mixture containing fentanyl and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a person convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year. Judge Nichols scheduled sentencing for June 10, 2024, where he will face a five-year mandatory minimum sentence. At the time of the trafficking offenses, he was on supervised probation for a robbery conviction out of Prince George’s County, Maryland.

            The plea follows a lengthy investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Narcotics Enforcement Unit (NEU), FBI’s Washington Field Office, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. The law enforcement partnership identified a crew of young men operating within on the 200 block of K Street, Southwest, with firearms, large amounts of U.S. currency, and illegal narcotics. The members of the group wore matching insignia on clothing printed with “NO RATS ALLOWED” or “N.R.A.” Jones, aka “Chief,” and other members of the N.R.A. crew used several townhouses on the block as stash locations or “trap houses” for narcotics and firearms. Many of Jones’ N.R.A. associates have been arrested and successfully prosecuted for firearms offenses and the possession and distribution of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl. 

            The government’s investigation showed from October 2021 to October 2023, Jones relied heavily on social media to both make connections with other drug dealers to conduct sales of illegal substances to individual customers and N.R.A. crew members. On his Instagram account and cell phone, investigators found evidence showing Jones’ trafficking of crack cocaine, promethazine, and wholesale quantities of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and marijuana.  Furthermore, the digital evidence showed that Jones was aware that at least some of the counterfeit pills he sold contained fentanyl, was warned by another drug dealer that certain pills he was selling might contain lethal amounts of fentanyl, and knowingly distributed the pills with full knowledge they might harm or kill customers.

            Metropolitan Police Department officers arrested Jones on October 28, 2023, following a foot chase, during which he discarded a firearm in the lobby of the Capitol Park Plaza Apartments in Washington D.C. That firearm discharged as he tossed it and the bullet struck a glass window in the lobby of the apartment building, narrowly missing two security guards that were feet away from him.  

            This case was investigated by the FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force, with valuable assistance from the Metropolitan Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin F. Song.