Two St. Louis Men Sentenced for Drug Trafficking at Clinton-Peabody Housing Complex

St. Louis – Daichi Horiace, 42, of St. Louis, and Marquise Cortez Brown, 26, of St. Louis, were sentenced to 120 months and 70 months in prison, respectively.  Both were involved in a conspiracy to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl centered in the Clinton-Peabody housing complex on the near south side of the City of St. Louis.  Fentanyl is a controlled substance that is deadly in doses of only a few milligrams.  Both appeared before the Honorable Catherine D. Perry.  

According to court documents, Horiace and Brown acted as distributors for drug customers seeking fentanyl in the St. Louis Metropolitan area.  Horiace, Brown and their other associates used various apartments within the Clinton-Peadoby housing complex for purposes of storing and distributing fentanyl, among other things.

Horiace and Brown each pleaded to one felony count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl in January 2019.

Today’s sentencings are the first two obtained in connection with the on-going U.S. Attorney’s Office Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative and investigation into drug distribution activity centered in the Clinton-Peabody public housing complex on the near south side of the City of St. Louis.  The investigation has included, among other things, the execution of more than fifteen federal search warrants resulting in the seizure of numerous firearms and controlled substances and was the subject of an important public forum involving law enforcement, citizens, and residents of the Clinton-Peabody complex held on August 3, 2018, at the Peabody Elementary School.

“Year to date, violent crime through March in the Peabody Neighborhood has gone down 59%.  That statistic speaks to the positive impact that collaborative efforts such as these can have on a neighborhood and for that I’m very thankful,” said Chief John Hayden, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

U. S. Attorney Jeff Jensen commended the coordination of the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies involved, “The efforts of these dedicated law enforcement officers and their respective agencies dismantled the drug distribution organization operating at Clinton-Peabody.  Today marks a first step in holding the members of that organization accountable through significant prison time for the poison each was dealing.”

This case was an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the St. Louis Division of the FBI, the St. Louis Division of the DEA, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the United States Marshals Service and the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department with assistance from the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office.