A "street smart and savvy" drug organization the Harford County Sheriff's Office has known about since 2007 but was never able to take down, was dismantled last month with the indictment of its three leaders and 15 associates, a top investigator says.
The ring was led locally by two brothers, Srewob Brown and Neworb Brown, who allegedly bought cocaine in New York City from a supplier, identified by police as Raymond Keating, then brought it to Edgewood, where it was cooked into crack cocaine and distributed along the Route 40 corridor in Harford and Baltimore counties and around Delta, Pa., according to court charging documents.
Besides the Brown brothers and Keating, who were charged as kingpins, 15 others were indicted last month on various drug distribution charges. Srewob Brown and Keating are still on the run, believed to be in New York City. Three others are still wanted on the charges.
"We feel confident with this investigation that we've dismantled the entire drug trafficking organization," Capt. Lee Dunbar, commander of the Harford County Task Force, said Monday. "A lot of the individuals have violent criminal histories. So not only are we dismantling the entire organization, we're taking violent drug traffickers and dealers off the streets in Harford County, which makes Harford County safer."
Neworb Brown is blind and would have other members of their organization drive him around to conduct his business, a public defender said during Brown's bail hearing in March. Brown was released on $100,000 bond.
"He wasn't blind enough to run a drug trafficking organization for more than eight years. He was more than capable of that," Dunbar said.
The task force and Sheriff's Office's Special Operations Division has been aware of the drug trafficking ring since 2007 and have arrested several of its members over the years, "but we've never been able to bring substantial charges to them and the entire organization we were trying to target," Dunbar said.
"They're very disciplined, very keen on watching what they did, how they operated, how they drove. They're very street smart and savvy," he said. "It's one of the most challenging investigations I've been involved in."
The task force took the lead on the case in late 2014 and, with members working undercover, developed enough probable cause to do wiretaps, which began Jan. 21 and ended March 14. For nearly two months, task force members monitored phone calls of the Brown brothers and others in the organization, Dunbar said.
The wiretaps, Dunbar said, allowed the task force to target the entire organization. Without it, the only people who could be arrested were those the task force dealt with directly.
"It's allows us to take down an entire drug trafficking organization instead of certain individuals within it," Dunbar said.
Neworb Brown was arrested, just as the wiretaps were concluding and the task force executed a number of search and seizure warrants in Harford and Baltimore counties, Dunbar said.
During those searches, task force members seized powder cocaine, crack cocaine, several hundred prescription pills, such as Oxycodone and Xanax, as well as handguns and cash.
Keating was also arrested during the wiretap. Task force members learned that he would be bringing cocaine to the Brown brothers and followed him on I-95 before stopping him, Dunbar said. After a brief vehicle and foot pursuit, during which Keating bailed out of his car, Keating was arrested on drug charges.
When needed, the Brown brothers or one of their associates would drive to New York to buy "large amounts" of cocaine, Dunbar said.
"Sometimes it was every couple days, sometimes it was as long as a week," he said. "They'd bring it back to Harford County, to their base of operations in Grove Apartments in Edgewood, cook it and distribute it to their dealers."
The crack cocaine would sold along Route 40, in Edgewood and Aberdeen in Harford and in White Marsh and Middle River in Baltimore County. It was also sold to buyers in Delta, in York County, Pa., just across the state line from northern Harford.
As kingpins, Srewob Brown and Neworb Brown are facing 106 and 64 felony counts, respectively, Dunbar said.
Because the center of the operation was in Grove Apartments in Edgewood, which is within 1,000 feet of Edgewood Elementary School, all of the members also are facing charges of drug distribution and possession within a school zone.
Charges include distributing and conspiring to distribute large amounts of drugs, importing drugs into the state, distributing narcotics, distributing drugs on school property or bus; conspiracy to distribute narcotics; and maintaining a common nuisance by distributing drugs.
Dunbar also said the sheriff's office consulted with the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office about bringing federal charges, but because of the violent criminal histories of many of the members, they were looking at more jail time indicted at the state level than at the federal level.
Besides Srewob Brown, who is from Edgewood, and Keating, police are still looking for Jean Hobbs, 42, of Edgewood; Adam Pakacki, 31, of Delta, Pa.; and Rodney Preston, 35, of Monkton.
Anyone who has information about the whereabouts of any of the five is asked to call the sheriff's office northern precinct, 410-692-7880, or southern precinct, 410-612-1717.
Also indicted on drug-related changes by the Harford state's attorney's office are: Tameka Harris, 34, of Edgewood; Viola Williams, 39, of Edgewood; Charles Pringle, 23, of Aberdeen; Winston Worrell, 36, of Aberdeen; Juan Lora, 46, of Edgewood; Alfred Atkinson, 34, of Edgewood; Hasson Bolling, 32, of Edgewood; Tonisha Smith, 32, of Edgewood, John High, 26, of Edgewood; Latoya Cooks, 30, of Aberdeen; Terry McKinnon, 35, of Edgewood; and Stephen Maxfield, 24, of Edgewood.
The indictments dealt a crushing blow to the organization for the benefit of Harford residents, Dunbar said.
"It's a significant impact on their organization and a significant impact in a positive way on the community by getting these individuals off the streets," he said.
The task force, isn't just focused on heroin in Harford County, he said, a message he wants to sink in among Harford's drug dealers.
"We're still investigating other drug organizations," Dunbar said. "If you are dealing dangerous drugs in Harford County and have violence associated with your organization, and most do, we're going to come after you. We'll take you down from the top to the bottom, which is what we did with the Brown brothers."