Three men in their 50s and 60s who sold heroin out of West Baltimore senior citizens centers pleaded guilty yesterday to federal drug trafficking charges and will likely spend some of their golden years in prison.
"It would seem you're never too old to deal drugs," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea L. Smith, who prosecuted the case.
Robert A. Neverdon, 54, who prosecutors said has drug convictions dating to the 1960s, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to being the ring leader and will receive a minimum prison sentence of 87 months.
Neverdon used the contacts he made through decades of drug dealing to establish a successful business that sold $1,000 worth of heroin a day in West Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore, prosecutors said.
The operation's workers included Marshall Harold, 63, who ran the stash house out of a senior citizens high-rise on Odell Avenue, and Ray Fields, 54, whose apartment in the Fremont Homes senior citizens housing development was raided by federal agents.
During the raid at the senior home, agents found a pound of heroin, hundreds of glassine bags and a triple-beam scale, according to court records.
Harold, Fields and Neverdon's wife, Vondalear Neverdon, 44, also pleaded guilty.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 12 before Judge Frederic N. Smalkin. The defendants' criminal records go back so many years that they predate computerized records, making it difficult to assess their histories, federal agents said.
Neverdon ran the drug operation out of his apartment at Fremont Homes, which is part of the George B. Murphy Homes public housing development on George Street. Fremont housing is primarily reserved for the elderly and the handicapped.
Prosecutors said buyers would call gang member Douglas E. Donahue, 61, and place orders for heroin "bundles" containing 15 to 20 bags each. Donahue would send Neverdon a coded message about the order via pager, court records said.
Using that system, the two men served dozens of loyal customers ranging in age from 25 to 60, federal agents said.
"After Douglas Donahue would distribute the order to the customer, Donahue would communicate to Neverdon over his pager the customer served, and the amount of money collected," court papers said.
Donahue, who is awaiting sentencing in Baltimore Circuit Court for drug manufacturing, also had an extensive history in the drug market and was able to provide additional "customers" from his old hometown, Salisbury, court records said.
Authorities caught on to the scheme and put wiretaps on phones belonging to Neverdon and Donahue. The raids at the senior homes were done after agents overheard numerous "drug-related conversations," court records said.
Neverdon and Donahue have chronic health problems, but it is unclear what special considerations they might receive when they are sentenced, prosecutors said.