Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Adam B. Abelson sentenced Rodney Gaines, 35, of Westminster, Maryland, to 23 years in federal prison and five years of supervised release. Gaines was found guilty by a federal jury on April 4 for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and cocaine base, possession of firearms related to drug trafficking, and two counts of distributing cocaine.
Judge Abelson determined that Gaines orchestrated the murder of a man in Westminster on January 31, 2022. Sentencing enhancements were applied due to the involvement of firearms and violence in Gaines's drug offenses and his leadership role in the conspiracy.
The sentence was announced by Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Amanda M. Koldjeski, Acting Special Agent in Charge at the FBI Baltimore Field Office; Colonel Roland L. Butler Jr., Superintendent of Maryland State Police; Sheriff James T. DeWees from Carroll County Sheriff's Office; and Chief Thomas Ledwell from Westminster Police Department.
Trial evidence included wiretaps revealing coded conversations about cocaine sales between Gaines and customers using terms like “powder,” “8-balls,” “balls,” and “sister.” Law enforcement seized cocaine quantities from Gaines’s customers post-sale.
Wiretaps also exposed Gaines’s collaboration with accomplices who delivered drugs or prepared crack cocaine by converting powder into crack form. Drugs were hidden at various locations including wooded areas around Westminster. Over $250,000 believed to be drug proceeds were recovered from a storage unit linked to another conspirator. The conspiracy involved over 280 grams of cocaine base which mandates a minimum sentence of ten years up to life imprisonment.
The defense presented evidence showing that firearms were part of Gaines’s activities with efforts made to acquire them from co-conspirators in January 2022.
U.S. Attorney Hayes commended the FBI, MSP, Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, and Westminster Police Department for their investigative work while acknowledging Assistant U.S Attorneys LaRai N. Everett and Michael C. Hanlon who prosecuted the case.
For more information about resources available through the Maryland U.S Attorney’s Office visit justice.gov/usao-md or justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.
