Eight individuals involved in a drug trafficking operation in the Eastern Panhandle have received sentences. The indictment, filed in January 2024 against Gary Brown, Jr. and eighty-one others, alleged that the group distributed significant quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine across Berkeley and Jefferson Counties.
The individuals sentenced this week are Eric Garner, also known as "Pops," aged 58 from Baltimore, Maryland, who received a sentence of 300 months; Gary Rodriguez, known as "Mr. T," aged 34 from Lanham, Maryland, sentenced to 240 months; Benjamin Paul Knotts, aged 49 from Charles Town, West Virginia, sentenced to 235 months; Damian Costello, aged 28 from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, sentenced to 180 months; Michael Bradley Decker, aged 44 from Inwood, West Virginia with a sentence of 97 months; Gary Brown III, aged 20 from Baltimore, Maryland with a sentence of 36 months; Wendy Diane Crites, aged 58 from Charles Town, West Virginia with a sentence of 27 months in federal prison; and Michael Regale Luckett, aged 47 from Martinsburg, West Virginia with a sentence of nine months in federal prison.
Out of the original group of eighty-two defendants named in the indictment, eighty-one have been convicted. Seventy defendants have been sentenced so far. One individual remains at large: Charles Delroy Singletary aged 44 from Baltimore.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lara Omps-Botteicher and Kyle Kane led the prosecution for the government under the supervision of U.S. District Judge Gina M. Groh.
The investigation was conducted by multiple agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Pittsburgh Field Division and Baltimore Field Division), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF), United States Marshals Service (USMS), Eastern Panhandle Drug Task Force—a HIDTA-funded initiative—and various state and local law enforcement agencies.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America which aims to eliminate cartels and transnational criminal organizations while protecting communities from violent crime through resources provided by the Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).
