Three leaders of local narcotics ring found guilty of various federal drug trafficking related charges

-- two of the leaders face life without parole --

Washington, D.C. - Three leaders of a local narcotics ring that operated in the District of Columbia, the State of Maryland, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, have been found guilty of numerous federal drug trafficking charges, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.

Late yesterday afternoon, a federal jury sitting in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, returned guilty verdicts against Gerald Eiland, 36, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Frederick "Toby" Miller, 36, of Oxon Hill, Maryland, both leaders of a narcotics ring that operated in the District of Columbia, including the 600 and 700 blocks of Atlantic and Yuma Streets, SE, Washington, D.C. (which is within the Highlands subdivision), the State of Maryland, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Specifically the jury found Eiland and Miller guilty of Narcotics Conspiracy, Racketeering (RICO) Conspiracy, Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE), and numerous counts of using a telephone in furtherance of a drug conspiracy, all in violation of federal laws. The jury also found Alvin Gaskins, 44, of the 3800 block of 9th Street, SE, Washington, D.C., the organization's "administrative officer," guilty of Narcotics Conspiracy.

Eiland and Miller both face mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole, while Gaskins faces a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years in prison. All three defendants will be sentenced in 2007 by the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth.
According to the government's evidence, between 1999 and 2004, Eiland and Miller controlled an organization that was responsible for smuggling drugs into the District of Columbia, processing and packaging those drugs, and selling them on the streets of the District. The organization used "mules" (drug couriers) to transport kilos of cocaine by car from Arizona and New Jersey to the District of Columbia. The organization also smuggled raw heroin into the District of Columbia through the U.S. Mail and by airline-passenger "mules."

In various "stash houses" in Virginia and the District of Columbia, the organization processed the powder cocaine into crack cocaine, and processed the raw heroin into street-level heroin. The government presented evidence from search warrants of those stash houses that included: multiple coffee grinders (to pulverize the raw heroin into powder), mannitol (an additive to increase the volume of street level heroin), sifters and strainers (to mix the heroin and additives), thousands of small ziplock bags, and a money-counting machine. The organization sold these drugs primarily in Southeast Washington, D.C.

The organization used violence to protect its drug enterprise. The government presented evidence that Eiland hired a co-conspirator to murder an individual over a drug debt. Eiland paid the hitman $10,000 in cash and a white Acura Legend car to perform the execution. In June 1999, the hitman laid in wait in Prince George's County, Maryland, approached the individual from behind, and shot him in the back of the head. Although the victim survived the shooting, he sustained permanent injuries.

This prosecution is the result of an investigation initiated in 2003 by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Metropolitan Police Department's (MPD) Safe Streets Gang Task Force into the trafficking of illegal narcotics into areas of Southeast Washington, D.C. To date, 26 persons have been convicted as part of the investigation.

In announcing the verdicts, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended the following law enforcement and prosecution team members:

Federal Bureau of Investigations: Steven Hall (former FBI Special Agent, now Detective with the Indian River County Sheriff's Office, Florida), Dan Sparks, Scott Turner, Katie Hanna, and Robert Lockhardt;
Metropolitan Police Department: Konstantinos Giannakoulias, Thomas Webb, Barbara Lyles, Rick Watkins, Arthur Reed, James Zerega, Bryan Murphy, Chris Clark, Stephen Franchek, and Stephen Murphy;
United States Park Police: Paul Edwards and William Sepeck;
DEA Task Force: Christopher Sherman and Frank Wendolek;
U.S. Postal Inspector Service: Kevin McCann and Sherwin Green (ret.); and
United States Attorney's Office: Thomasenia Manson, Diane Brashears, Carolyn Carter-McKiney, Patrica Hall, Ashley Oldham, Julius Rothstein, Nancy Jackson, and John Han.

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