THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 11, 1995 TAG: 9501110442
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
A distributor for an interstate drug gang that allegedly dealt up to $122.8 million in crack cocaine and killed or maimed several people along the East Coast pleaded guilty Tuesday to drug conspiracy charges.
Maurice Lloyd Gray pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $4million fine.
Gray was the second of 21 alleged members indicted in December to enter a plea in the case. Last month, Anthony R. Wynn also pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
Gray will be sentenced April 7.
In December, a grand jury indicted 21 people in what was probably the largest interstate cocaine ring prosecuted in Hampton Roads.
According to the indictment, drug sales, violence and money-laundering had occurred since 1989 in Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and Richmond.
Police have said gang members moved drugs from Miami and New York to Richmond, then to the Peninsula, where they virtually controlled the drug market. The gang has also been linked to four murders since 1990, in Norfolk, Newport News, Philadelphia, and Lorain, Ohio.
Gray, 22, confessed to distributing cocaine to local dealers after the drugs were shipped from New York City. He was paid a salary - $1,000 for every three days he worked - and supplied a gun by the gang leaders, authorities said.
Gray - who lived in Queens, N.Y., where the ring originated - was recruited there in September or October of 1991 to act as middleman in Hampton. The cocaine was prepackaged in secret compartments of cars owned by the gang, then driven to Hampton. Gray then distributed ounces to quarter-kilos of crack cocaine to local dealers.
It all ended for Gray in December 1991 when he and another alleged gang member, Cleamon Anderson, were pulled over in Hampton during a routine traffic stop. Gray falsely identified himself as another gang member, police said. Police found $6,675 in cash and a Cobra handgun under the driver's seat; they also found a small amount of cocaine and $2,654 in cash on Gray.
Gray was indicted but fled the state. He was arrested in New York City on Dec. 15. He was not allowed back into the gang after his indictment because fellow gang members feared his involvement with authorities, prosecutors said.
One of the 21 alleged gang members - Terrance James - has been charged with capital murder; prosecutors have indicated they may seek the death penalty. Other gang members are still at large.
Ten more alleged gang members will be arraigned today in federal court.
KEYWORDS: DRUG ARREST DRUG GANGS COCAINE
TRIAL by CNB