Rayful Edmond, a notorious Washington DC-based drug dealer from the 1980s, has died in Florida while living in a halfway house.
Edmond, 60, was known at the height of his criminal empire as the “king of cocaine” in Washington, D.C. He oversaw a sprawling drug network that fueled the city’s devastating crack epidemic, contributing to a dramatic rise in homicides.
In 1989, at the age of 24, Edmond was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison for his role in running a vast drug distribution network. His operation was estimated to be moving up to 1,700 pounds of cocaine per month, generating millions of dollars each week.
His trial was marked by unprecedented security measures, and jury members were kept anonymous for their protection. He received a sentence of life without parole and was sent to a maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania. He continued to run a drug distribution network from inside the prison, and when he was caught, Edmond received an additional 30-year sentence.
Edmond was arrested on April 15, 1989, at the age of 24. His arrest and subsequent trial were widely covered by local and national media. Judicial officials, fearful of reprisals from members of Edmond's gang, imposed unprecedented security during the trial. Jurors' identities were kept secret before, during, and after trial, and their seating area was enclosed in bulletproof glass. The presiding judge even barred the public from the trial in an effort to protect the jury. Edmond was jailed at the maximum security Marine Corps Brig at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia and flown to the Federal Court House in Washington, D.C. by helicopter each day for his trial. Authorities took this unusual step due to heightened fears of an armed escape attempt.
Edmond was convicted of numerous federal violations
On September 17, 1990, the District Court imposed sentences of mandatory life without parole on Count One, life without parole on Counts Two and Five, 60 months on Count Eleven, and 48 months on Counts Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, and Eighteen. Edmond's sentences were to run concurrently.
Edmond was eventually sentenced to life in prison without parole. His mother, Constance "Bootsie" Perry, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for participating in his criminal enterprise. Several of his sisters and cousins also received sentences.
Edmond continued to deal after being incarcerated in the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, in Pennsylvania. He hooked up with Dixon Dario and Osvaldo "Chiqui" Trujillo-Blanco (son of Griselda "Godmother" Trujillo Blanco) who shared the same cell block with him. Edmond was setting up deals between D.C. area traffickers and his Colombian connection while incarcerated. In 1996, Edmond and another drug dealer from Atlanta, named Lowe, were convicted after conducting drug business from a federal prison phone. Edmond received an additional 30-year sentence. In an interview with the Bureau of Prisons, Edmond said he had spent several hours every day on the telephone, occasionally using two lines simultaneously to conduct his drug business. Attorney General Eric Holder criticized the Federal Bureau of Prisons for its lax management that allowed drug deals to be conducted from inside prison.
In 1996, federal authorities revealed that Edmond had become a government informant. With Edmond's cooperation, the government arrested 11 alleged drug dealers working in Washington D.C. In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed to seek a reduced sentence for Edmond's mother.
Edmond remained incarcerated but later became part of the United States Federal Witness Protection Program. The prison where he was held was not publicly disclosed by the government.
In 2019, Edmond returned to D.C. for hearings on whether his life sentence should be reduced to time served based on the information he provided to authorities concerning 20 homicides. At the time, a survey by the District of Columbia Attorney General showed that half of D.C. residents thought Edmond should be released. In 2021, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan granted the government's request for early release, although Edmond has a separate 30-year sentence for running his operation from prison.
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