(CUMBERLAND, MD) \u2013 The Maryland State Police Heroin Investigative Unit, led by the Allegany County Narcotics Task Force, identified and arrested the leader of a drug trafficking organization comprised of Blood street gang members and associates involved in the distribution of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, and the trafficking of firearms from New York to Allegany County.<\/p>\n
\u201cOperation Blood Clot,\u201d was the investigative effort initiated in July, 2019, by the Maryland State Police Heroin Investigative Unit, in conjunction with the Allegany County Narcotics Task Force and the Allegany County State’s Attorney\u2019s Office.\u00a0 The investigation targeted a drug trafficking organization responsible for distributing large quantities of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.\u00a0 The year-long investigation resulted in Juerbar Otis Thomas, 43 of Cumberland, formally of the Bronx, NY, being indicted by an Allegany County Grand Jury on 64 drug-related offenses, to include a charge of being a drug kingpin.<\/p>\n
On May 25, 2020, investigators with the Allegany County Narcotics Task Force,\u00a0 Maryland State Police Gang Enforcement Unit, STATE Team, Cumberland Barrack and Homicide Unit, along with the West Virginia State Police, Cumberland Police Department, Allegany County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and Frostburg City Police Department, served search warrants in the 300 block of City View Terrace, Boone Street, 100 block of Mechanic Street, 400 block of Baltimore Avenue and the unit-block of W. First Street, Cumberland, Md. \u00a0Additional search warrants were served in the E. Main Street area of Frostburg, Md., and Old Furnace Road area of Mineral County, West Virginia.<\/p>\n
Large amounts of suspected fentanyl, heroin, crack cocaine, drug-related cash and firearms were recovered by police.\u00a0 During the investigation, police recovered 13 guns.\u00a0 Drugs they recovered included more than 1,200 grams of fentanyl with a street value of more than $192,000, more than 99 grams of heroin with a street value of almost $16,000 and more than 475 grams of cocaine with a street value of more than $47,500.<\/p>\n
The investigation developed sufficient evidence to allege Thomas was the organizer, supervisor and manager of the drug trafficking organization.\u00a0 Thomas obtained fentanyl, heroin and cocaine from Bronx, New York and distributed those drugs in Allegany County, Maryland and West Virginia.<\/p>\n
Thomas and his associates were also discovered\u00a0 to be manufacturing fentanyl and heroin pills which mimicked prescription opioid pills.\u00a0 Thomas was arrested May 25th and has been held without bond in the Allegany County Detention Center since.<\/p>\n
An Allegany Grand Jury also indicted 20 co-conspirators in connection with Thomas\u2019s drug trafficking organization.\u00a0 They are:<\/p>\n
Byron Jamar Simms, Frostburg, MD \u2013 30 counts of drug and firearm related offenses<\/p>\n
Anthony Robert Joyner, Cumberland, MD \u2013 12 counts of drug and firearm related offenses<\/p>\n
Raymond William Seabrook, Cumberland, MD \u2013 43 counts of drug and firearm related offenses<\/p>\n
Akosua Denise Seabrook, Cumberland, MD \u2013 29 counts of drug and firearm related offenses<\/p>\n
Jakela Tonice Watkins, Cumberland, MD \u2013 One count, drug-related offense<\/p>\n
Leonard Wayne Metzner, Cumberland, MD \u2013 Three counts of drug related offenses<\/p>\n
Mark Feodor Smith Sr., Cumberland, MD \u2013 One count of a drug related offense<\/p>\n
Michelle Beth Kline, Cumberland, MD \u2013 One count of a drug related offense<\/p>\n
Sandra Diane Rust, Bedford, PA \u2013 Six counts of drug-related offenses<\/p>\n
Reginald Murray, Cumberland, MD \u2013 One count of a drug-related offense<\/p>\n
Shane Lee York, Cumberland, MD \u2013 Two counts of drug-related offenses<\/p>\n
Shawn Alan Mullaney, Cumberland, MD \u2013 One count of a drug-related offense<\/p>\n
Stephanie Ann Blickenstaff, Cumberland, MD \u2013 One count of a drug-related offenses<\/p>\n
Terry Lee Harris, Keyser, WV \u2013 One count of a drug-related offense<\/p>\n
Alexis Nicol Fisher, Frostburg, MD \u2013 Three counts of drug-related offenses<\/p>\n
Brian Borden, Cumberland, MD \u2013 Two counts of drug-related offenses<\/p>\n
Clayton Shaquille Booker, Cumberland, MD \u2013 One count of a drug-related offense<\/p>\n
Cierra Desiree VanMeter, Cumberland, MD \u2013 One count of a drug-related offense<\/p>\n
David Dean Howe Jr., Bedford, PA \u2013 Six counts of drug-related offenses<\/p>\n
Emily Nicole Mitchell, Cumberland, MD \u2013 Two counts of drug-related offenses<\/p>\n
These suspects were served with their Grand Jury indictments on July 7, 2020, except for Watkins, Metzner and Fisher.\u00a0 Warrants are outstanding for their arrests.<\/p>\n
Also participating in the investigation was the Cumberland City Police Department and Allegany County Sheriff\u2019s Office, under the Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network (MCIN). The Governor\u2019s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services provides grant funding and strategic support to MCIN member sites to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal organizations through inter-agency collaboration and data sharing to make Maryland safer.<\/p>\n
In recent years, there has been a rise in the number of drug-related overdose deaths in Maryland. This escalation is largely attributable to increases in opiate-related abuse. In response to the alarming trend, Governor Larry Hogan issued Executive Order 01.01.2015.12, creating the Heroin and Opioid Emergency Task Force, charged with advising and assisting Governor Hogan in establishing a coordinated statewide and multi-jurisdictional effort to prevent, treat, and significantly reduce heroin and opioid abuse. In its final report, the Governor\u2019s Task Force included 33 recommendations to combat the heroin epidemic. These included the creation of a multi-jurisdictional Maryland State Police Heroin Investigation Unit to focus on mid-to-upper-level heroin and opioid distribution operations.<\/p>\n
In 2019, there were 119 non-fatal and 24 fatal overdoses reported in Allegany County.\u00a0 So far in 2020, the rate of overdoses in the county has increased with 83 non-fatal and 18 fatal overdoses reported to date.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(CUMBERLAND, MD) \u2013 The Maryland State Police Heroin Investigative Unit, led by the Allegany County Narcotics Task Force, identified and arrested the leader of a drug trafficking organization comprised of Blood street gang members and associates involved in the distribution of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, and the trafficking of firearms from New York to Allegany Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18827,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18826\/revisions\/18827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}