Six Members of a Severn Street Drug Operation and a Supplier Indicted on Cocaine Trafficking and Firearms Charges
“Pioneer City Boys” Allegedly Shot a Police Officer and Threatened Cooperators
Shawn A. Johnson, Special Agent in Charge of DEA’s Washington Division, announced that a federal indictment was unsealed against seven men for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. The charges include allegations of crack cocaine distribution, firearms offenses, and the shooting of Anne Arundel County Police Officer William Hicks. The indictment was returned under seal by a federal grand jury on September 7, 2005.
The indictment, which was unsealed, alleges that from 2002 until the present, conspirators used residences on Arwell Court, Pioneer Drive, and other locations to package and store cocaine and cocaine base (crack) for street sales in a community known as “Pioneer City” in Severn, Maryland.
Six of the defendants are alleged to be members of the Pioneer City Boys: Lowell Joseph Braswell, age 21, of LaPlata; Tony Maurice Horne, Jr. age 24, of Glen Burnie; Laronte Lee Richardson, age 19, of Baltimore; Calvin Ignatius Savoy, age 27, of Severn; Troemaine Herbert Storey, age 27, of Glen Burnie; and Paul Eugene Turner, Jr, age 30, of Severn. A seventh man, Jerome Otto Waters, Jr., age 27, of Annapolis, is alleged to be one several sources of crack cocaine for the conspirators.
The indictment charges that drug dealing operations took place in Severn, Maryland, in communities known as Still Meadows, Meade Village, and Pioneer City. Members “tagged” or marked the walls, streets, and mailboxes of the communities to warn people not to cooperate with law enforcement. Members used violence against competing drug traffickers in open view of the community to deter citizens from cooperating with police or the sale of drugs. The specific acts of violence charged in the indictment include the sale of firearms to undercover Anne Arundel County police officers, and the September 11, 2004 shooting of an Anne Arundel County police officer in the 1600 block of Annapolis Road in Odenton. Officer Hicks was shot once in the arm and has since returned to full duty.
Each of the seven defendants is charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, which carries a maximum term of life imprisonment. Braswell and Richardson are also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison consecutive to the drug conspiracy prison term. Savoy faces a maximum sentence of life in prison consecutive to the drug conspiracy prison term for discharging a firearm in connection with the shooting of the Anne Arundel County police officer.
The investigation was the result of the cooperative federal task force which, along with DEA’s Baltimore District Office, includes the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Anne Arundel County Police Department; the Baltimore City Police Department; and the Annapolis Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Andrea L. Smith and Anne Arundel County Assistant State’s Attorney M. Virginia Miles are prosecuting the case.
