Twenty-two people, including one of the boys featured in an acclaimed documentary about city children attending school in Africa, were indicted this week by a federal grand jury on charges related to a drug distribution conspiracy in the Gilmor Homes public housing complex in West Baltimore.
Among those indicted was Romesh Mustafa Vance, 20, who along with his brother was one of four high-risk students whose journey to attend the Baraka School in Kenya on scholarship was captured in the acclaimed documentary "The Boys of Baraka."
Vance was already being held on first-degree murder charges after being picked up June 13 on a warrant in connection with a kidnapping and killing from April 2009; the federal indictment adds heroin and crack cocaine conspiracy charges to his pending legal woes.
Those named in the indictment Thursday range in age from 20 to 66, and all face charges relating to conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, powder cocaine and heroin in and around the public housing complex.
Court records list some of them by their nicknames, which include "Slinky," "Wimp," "Mud" and "Fat Boy." A spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said those charged were not part of a gang, but a highly organized drug ring.
The U.S. attorney's office for Maryland said 12 of the defendants were arrested Thursday and three were already in custody.
Also among those charged is Dione Fauntleroy, 26, who had been charged in 2004 with the shooting of an transit officer. He went free after the officer recanted part of his account of the shooting and said Fauntleroy was not involved, prompting prosecutors to drop the charge.
In the Gilmor Homes case, Fauntleroy faces gun-related charges, including possession of a gun in furtherance of drug trafficking and possession of a gun with an obliterated serial number, according to prosecutors.
A man who also has a long drug record and appears to be Fauntleroy's father, Dione Fauntleroy Sr., 46, was also charged.
"Gilmor Homes citizens deserve to live without the fear and intimidation inflicted by drug organizations," DEA Special Agent in Charge Ava A. Cooper-Davis said in a statement.
When the "Boys of Baraka" filmmakers caught up with the students in 2006, some had success stories to tell. But Vance was cutting school, living with friends and spending time on the streets. He "faces the Herculean task of rejecting the offerings of the street and making a productive life for himself," filmmakers said in an update on the PBS website.
Vance's murder charges are connected to the April 20, 2009, kidnapping and killing of Quonta Waddell 24, who was hogtied and carried away screaming in front of his mother, according to court records. His kidnappers took $40,000 and attempted to extort more money before he was shot multiple times, records show.
Police initially charged 32-year-old Sherman Anderson in the crime, but prosecutors dropped those charges after a DNA test linked another man to the crime. Since then, at least five men have been charged.
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