Martin Austermuhle / DCist.WAMU
Members of a longstanding D.C. neighborhood crew have been accused of trafficking large quantities of drugs into the city, selling them in open-air drug markets in Northwest, engaging in periodic bouts of deadly violence, and laundering the proceeds of their drug sales through a Maryland casino and a nonexistent car-detailing business.
Federal prosecutors this week unveiled a sweeping indictment against a dozen alleged members of the Kennedy Street Crew, claiming that the men trafficked and sold hundreds of pounds of marijuana, crack, and fentanyl that led to a “marked rise in crimes of violence and homicides in the Kennedy Street neighborhood” — including up to seven dead and many more injured.
The charges and arrests stem from a years-long police investigation into violence and drug sales along a stretch of Kennedy Street NW, running roughly from First Street NW to Georgia Avenue through the neighborhoods of Manor Park and Brightwood Park. The commercial and residential corridor has been the scene of repeated shootings in recent years, prompting police to periodically set up semi-permanent posts at specific intersections. It was also the scene of a fatal 2020 incident where Karon Hylton-Brown was struck and killed during a police chase; Terence Sutton, the D.C. police officer who was chasing him, was found guilty of second-degree murder late last year. (He’s appealing the conviction.)
“The Kennedy Street Crew (KDY) operated over an...
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