NORFOLK, Va. — Seventeen members of a drug trafficking organization (DTO) pleaded guilty to their roles in a conspiracy to distribute narcotics, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said.
According to court documents, from at least, the main conspirators of the DTO were 47-year-old Corey Wright of Chesapeake and 48-year-old Malik Dillard, aka “Mayo” of Virginia Beach.
Sometime between February 2021 and October 2023 Wright and Dillard got their hands on methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl from out-of-state sources and shipped them in wholesale quantities to Virginia for further distribution.
Prosecutors said Wright and Dillard then shipped the substances to several mid-level distributors, who agreed to use their residences to receive, store, and process the drugs. These mid-level distributors included Hampton Roads natives, a North Carolinian, and a native of Haiti.
As part of the conspiracy, California suppliers shipped packages of narcotics hidden in stuffed animals to Wright, and he distributed fentanyl in the form of pressed imitation Roxicodone prescription pills.
The investigation spanned over two years and was a collaboration of Special Agents, Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Officers, detectives, investigators, officers, confidential informants, and other personnel, who combed through thousands of hours of phone calls and text communications to identify and dismantle this large network of narcotics distributors.
Wright - who was previously convicted in U.S. District Court in Alexandria for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine - and Dillard pled guilty to conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, and possess with intent to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine.
Wright also pleaded guilty to possessing with intent to manufacture and distribute cocaine and fentanyl, while Dillard also pleaded guilty to the distribution of methamphetamine.
On Feb. 2, Dillard was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Wright is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 1 and faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison.
A federal district court judge will determine the varying sentences for the mid-level suppliers involved in the case - many of whom face similar charges - after they consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
This effort was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation and the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program.
