BALTIMORE — Six people have been indicted for allegedly trafficking cocaine from Texas to Baltimore County.
Between July and October of 2022 the DEA tracked Latrava Kinney, 39, Lawrence Nauls, 45, and Jayson Rhodes, 49, all of Houston, Texas, as they regularly traveled to a safe house in Maryland to drop off large amounts of drugs.
According to the Maryland Attorney General's Office the drugs would then be picked up by two Baltimore men identified as Medford Smith, 42, and Sherrod Stokes, 43, who would break them down to sell on the street.
Investigators say Smith at one point received seven kilograms of cocaine, while also maintaining a local stash house.
He now faces a slew of charges including Supervising a Criminal Organization, Drug Kingpin, and Possessing a Machine Gun for an Aggressive Purpose.
The sixth man charged is Maurice Farmer, 47, who is accused of participating in a Criminal Organization and being a Volume Dealer in Possession with the Intent to Distribute.
After executing several search and seizure warrants, officials say they recovered 15 kilograms of cocaine, 400 grams of crack cocaine, 10 firearms including two assault-style rifles and a fully automatic Glock 30 handgun, and nearly half-a-million dollars in narcotics proceeds.
“The flow of narcotics and firearms into our communities must stop,” said Attorney General Anthony Brown. “Disrupting this large-scale, interstate drug trafficking ring is a tremendous step toward restoring peace and public safety, and I thank our partners in this case and applaud their hard work in obtaining these criminal indictments.”
