Michael Anderson Thomas, 50, of Chino, California, pleaded guilty on July 22 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of phencyclidine (PCP) and possessing a firearm in furtherance of that drug trafficking conspiracy, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro on July 23.
Thomas is a convicted felon with prior federal felony convictions for controlled substance offenses in the Northern District of Alabama and the District of Oregon. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years for the drug conspiracy charge and an additional consecutive mandatory minimum of five years for the firearm charge, totaling at least 15 years in prison. Judge Timothy J. Kelly scheduled sentencing for November 19.
According to court documents, FBI agents began investigating a drug trafficking operation centered around the 2900 block of Knox Place SE in Washington, D.C., during summer 2024. Law enforcement identified sources supplying fentanyl and PCP from California-based co-conspirators including Thomas. From at least July 2024 until his arrest in August 2025, Thomas arranged bulk PCP shipments from Los Angeles to co-defendant Thomas Wilton Hancock Jr., who redistributed them within the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area.
Payments totaling about $170,000 were routed through “Never To Late Transportation, LLC,” a shell company incorporated by Thomas and co-defendant Darrell Lamont Smith in Los Angeles. In March 2025, Smith drove a pickup truck containing seventeen gallons of PCP from Los Angeles toward Baltimore while Thomas traveled separately; Kansas state police stopped Smith’s vehicle on March 26 and seized the drugs.
On August 26, FBI agents conducted coordinated search operations across multiple cities. At Thomas’s residence in Chino, California, authorities recovered chemical precursors for PCP production stored in a backyard shed along with two firearms, ammunition, approximately $26,000 cash, a money counter, and can sealer equipment.
The investigation was led by the FBI Washington Field Office with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Washington Division Office and Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew W. Kinskey and John Crabb prosecuted the case.