Baltimore Heroin Distributor Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison

BALTIMORE—U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced William Larry Diggs, Jr., a/k/a “Sweets,” age 44, of Baltimore to 14 years in prison, followed by eight years of supervised release, for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin.

Judge Motz also sentenced co-defendant Darrin William Scott, age 44, of Baltimore, Maryland, to 65 months in prison, followed by eight years of supervised release on the same charge.

The sentences were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Maryland-Delaware Division; Assistant Director in Charge James W. McJunkin of the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Washington Field Office; Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, III; Major Michael Kundrat, Senior Commander of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police; Michael A. Pristoop, Chief of the Annapolis Police Department; Anne Arundel County Police Chief James Teare, Sr.; Colonel Marcus Brown, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; Special Agent in Charge Ava Cooper-Davis of the Drug Enforcement Administration-Washington Field Division; and Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department.

According to Diggs’ guilty plea, as part of a long-term investigation being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) into a heroin drug trafficking organization, calls were intercepted over Christian Gettis’ phone which revealed that he distributed significant quantities of heroin to others in the Baltimore metropolitan area. The investigation revealed that William Larry Diggs, Jr. was a Baltimore-based distributor of heroin he obtained from Gettis and Charles C. Guy. Calls intercepted over Gettis’s phones revealed that Diggs purchased heroin from Gettis in order to resell that heroin to his own customers.

For example, on April 13, 2010, officers assigned to a Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force arrested Towanda Capel in the O’Donnell Heights area of Baltimore with approximately 55 gel capsules of heroin. The officers had received information from a confidential informant that Capel was scheduled to meet Diggs to be re-supplied with heroin. The officers observed the transaction between the two and later arrested Capel after Diggs had driven away. The next day, on April 14, 2010, Gettis called Diggs and told him that Guy had called Gettis to complain that Diggs’ heroin sales were too low. Diggs was overheard explaining to Gettis that his competition had better product and went on explain that his best customer and reseller, Capel, was arrested in O’Donnell Heights immediately after being re-supplied by Diggs. Diggs told Gettis that Capel owed him $1,300. Toward the end of the call, Diggs talked about how small the profit was from selling heroin because he was paying a higher price due to his low volume, and as a result has to sell the drugs at a higher price than Gettis.

According to Scott’s plea agreement, on September 28, 2010, after law enforcement intercepted telephone conversations between Scott and Gettis arranging for Gettis to provide Scott with heroin, law enforcement officers observed the exchange. A short time later, officers stopped the vehicle in which Scott was a passenger. Later that day, Scott was overheard complaining to Gettis that Gettis had not given him the full amount of the drugs Scott had paid for and Gettis agreed to provide the difference. Scott also told Gettis about being pulled over by police after meeting with Gettis. Scott told Gettis he had hidden the heroin he had just bought from Gettis in his rectum in order to avoid detection by law enforcement.

The amount of heroin that was reasonably foreseeable to Diggs’s participation in the conspiracy was between 700 grams and one kilogram, and Scott was responsible for the distribution of between 100 and 400 grams of heroin during his participation in the conspiracy.

The drug trafficking organization also used a location that was less than 1,000 feet from a charter school in Baltimore City to process and distribute heroin. The investigation revealed that the conspirators distributed heroin in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County, and a housing project in Annapolis.

Judge Motz previously sentenced Christian Devlon Gettis a/k/a “Cutty Rock,” “C,” and “Chris,” age 39, of Baltimore, the leader of a heroin distribution organization, to 16 years in prison and sentenced co-defendant and heroin supplier Charles C. Guy, a/k/a “Captain,” “Beloved,” “B,” “Billy,” “Billy Guy,” “Gary Peterson,” and Damon Lamont Hackett,” age 43, of Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, to 17 years in prison after both pleaded guilty.

To date, 27 defendants, including Towanda Capel, age 42, of Baltimore, have pleaded guilty to their participation in the drug trafficking conspiracy. Capel is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29, 2012.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the FBI and FBI agents in Baltimore, Annapolis, and Washington, D.C.; the Baltimore Police Department; MdTA Police; the Annapolis Police Department; the Anne Arundel County Police Department; the Maryland State Police; FBI agents in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; the DEA; and the Baltimore County Police Department for their work in the arrest of Diggss, the searches and the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Ayn B. Ducao and Christopher J. Romano, who prosecuted this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case.