Friday, May 31, 2024

WASHINGTON – Leroy Frye, 32, of Waldorf, Md., and Francis White, 28, of Washington, D.C., were sentenced today to 60 months in prison and 46 months in prison, respectively, on firearms possession charges. The sentences were announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Scott of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division, and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            According to court documents, both guilty pleas stemmed from a residential search warrant that occurred on November 3, 2021, at 215 K Street, Southwest, a known trap house operated by members of the “No Rats Allowed” (NRA) crew which they used to stash their narcotics and firearms. Members of NRA would refer to 215 K through text messages as the “Dope Hole.” During a search of the trap house, 457 blue pills containing fentanyl (approximately 48.6 grams), 37 grams of crack-cocaine, and approximately 980 grams of suspected marijuana.

            NRA is a known violent street crew that operated on the 200 block of K Street, Southwest, in the District’s Greenleaf Gardens neighborhood. The NRA crew is responsible for distributing thousands of counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl and possessing firearms as part of their distribution schemes. Counterfeit pills are fake medications that have different ingredients than the actual medication. They may contain no active ingredient, the wrong active ingredient, or have the right ingredient but in an incorrect quantity. Counterfeit pills may contain lethal amounts of fentanyl or methamphetamine and are extremely dangerous because they often appear identical to legitimate prescription pills, and the user is likely unaware of how lethal they can be.  One example of these counterfeit pills that the NRA crew are known to traffic are blue pills stamped with “M” and “30.”

During the execution of the search warrant, law enforcement also seized four firearms, three of which were inside of the same kitchen drawer near where the drugs were found. One of the firearms was an FN FNS.40 caliber semi-automatic pistol, with a high-capacity magazine, with one round the chamber and 14 total rounds in the magazine. In his plea, Frye admitted the FN FNS was his.

From the same kitchen drawer, law enforcement also seized a Glock 17 9mm semi-automatic pistol, with a high-capacity magazine capable of holding 31 rounds, with one round in the chamber and 28 total rounds in the magazine. In his plea, White admitted the Glock 17 was his.

            Judge Friedrich recently sentenced two co-defendants in this case. On May 29, 2024, the judge sentenced Bartwone Copeland, 28, to 144 months (12 years) in prison and five years of supervised release for possession of a firearm by a felon, distribution of fentanyl, and carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. Copeland was also linked by DNA to one of the pistols found in the kitchen drawer that was modified with a “giggle switch,” a device that converted the firearm to function as a fully automatic machine gun. On January 10, 2024, Judge Friedrich sentenced Adrian Wade to 60 months in prison and five years of supervised release for carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense.

            This case was investigated by the MPD and the FBI’s Violent Crime Task Force. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin F. Song and Joshua Gold.