Darius Robertson, 32, from the District of Columbia, has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for leading a scheme to smuggle weapons, fentanyl, and cell phones into the Central Detention Facility (CDF) while awaiting trial for murder. The sentencing took place in U.S. District Court.
Robertson pleaded guilty on June 23, 2025, before Judge Timothy J. Kelly to conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States. Earlier in June, he had also pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter related to the October 2021 beating death of his cousin Andre Robertson. Sentencing for the manslaughter charge is scheduled for November 7, 2025. Judge Kelly ordered that Robertson’s new sentence will be served consecutively with any sentence imposed for voluntary manslaughter.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro and joined by Director Tom Faust of the D.C. Department of Corrections, FBI Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis of the Washington Field Office Criminal Division, and Chief Pamela A. Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department.
According to court documents, between December 2021 and July 2024 while held at CDF—also known as D.C. Jail—Robertson conspired with at least two other detainees from Clay Terrace neighborhood, two correctional officers, and two community members who delivered contraband into the jail.
Items targeted for smuggling included a switchblade knife; an Apple iPhone with charger; eyeglasses; marijuana; tobacco products; rolling papers; gambling dice; sheets containing synthetic cannabinoid MDMB-4en-PINACA—a Schedule I Controlled Substance; packages of marijuana; and about 100 cigarettes.
After several incidents in July 2024, authorities searched for contraband inside CDF and seized items including fentanyl-laced pills (269 blue pills), cigarettes soaked in unknown liquid (60), suboxone strips (255), paper soaked in unknown liquid (seven pieces), three cell phones, and additional cigarettes.
Co-defendants LaTara Brown (31) of Capitol Heights, Maryland; Kiya Holland (33) of Oxon Hill, Maryland; Marcel Vines (28) of Washington D.C.; and Stefon Freshley (28) also from Washington D.C., have all pleaded guilty.
Marcel Vines received a life sentence plus sixty years on March 7 for unrelated kidnappings and murders carried out as retaliation for another slaying not involving those victims. On August 13 he was given an additional forty-six months related to this smuggling operation.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Washington Field Office along with the D.C. Department of Corrections Office of Investigative Services and Metropolitan Police Department—with support from the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General—and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua Gold and Sarah Santiago.
