Troubled St. Louis housing complex was at center of drug-trafficking ring, federal indictment alleges

ST. LOUIS • Federal charges were filed Wednesday against 15 people allegedly involved in a drug-trafficking ring linked to three deaths and centered at the troubled Clinton-Peabody public housing complex just south of downtown.

“I believe that the drug distribution organization operating at Clinton-Peabody has been dismantled this morning,” U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen said in an emailed statement about the case. “The fentanyl dealt by this organization is literally poison.”

In addition to the arrests, more than 15 federal search warrants related to the investigation were executed by police and federal agents, St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden said. Hayden said that more than 20 guns and about 2.5 kilograms (about 5.5 pounds) of heroin or fentanyl had been seized. Testing of the drug has not been completed, he said.

The indictment says that the conspiracy used firearms to protect their fentanyl and the “significant” cash profits and in acts of violence against those who threatened their business. It claims that Demetrius Johnson, Armond Calvin and Christopher Rhodes Jr. murdered David Bryant as part of the trafficking ring on Dec. 3, 2016. The conspirators thought Bryant had stolen a customer, the indictment says.

Johnson also is accused of distributing a lethal dose of fentanyl to someone identified only as J.W. on Oct. 14, 2016.

Two other defendants, Christopher Pipes and Gregory Ivy, are accused of giving a lethal dose of the same prescription painkiller to a victim identified as C.P. on May 3.

The indictment doesn’t give the addresses of the defendants. Prosecutors said many of them lived outside the area but used the housing complex to distribute drugs.

This case involves allegations that go back as far as September 2014. It was investigated by St. Louis police, the FBI, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service and the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department with assistance from the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office, prosecutors said.

“Knowing that at least 50 percent of homicides and gun violence in our city are drug related, the long-term collaboration on this case and the ongoing efforts between the St. Louis City Police Department, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, DEA, and the FBI is absolutely going to make the Clinton-Peabody housing complex safer,” Hayden said in a news release about the indictments. “I believe the residents in this community are going to feel safer by day and sleep better at night because of our initiative.

“We are committed to the long-term safety and security of the residents in the Clinton-Peabody complex.”

Hayden brought his mobile office, fellow officers and ice cream to the complex Wednesday afternoon. He and officers handed out Crime Stoppers flyers with pictures of murder victims and encouraged residents to help fight the crime problem by helping police. He also said he would help with education, training and jobs.

One resident, Rhonda Prather, told the Post-Dispatch that she didn’t feel it was safe to let her children outside to play by themselves. She estimates they’ve been outside only six times since she moved in last January.

Another resident, Lisa Jones, 37, said Hayden was “the first chief that’s walked through these projects in a very long time. So every little bit helps.”

But the reception was mixed. Several men walked by singing an anti-police song. Three children rode around on Lime rental bikes that were playing a recording: “Please unlock me to ride me. Or I’ll call the police.”

Another woman heading with children to the free ice cream refused to take a flyer and said, “I don’t like the police.”

Midway through the visit to the complex, Hayden said that residents told him, “You put a dent in it. It endangers my life. It endangers my children’s lives,” referring to drug dealing.

The complex just south of Chouteau Avenue and west of 14th Street has been in the news in recent months due to crime and other problems, including a mice infestation.

Two of the alleged conspirators in the case, Pipes and Calvin, are currently on federal supervised release, a form of probation. Pipes was sentenced in 2016 to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and was released from prison in September.

Calvin pleaded guilty to the same charge in November and was sentenced in March to 13 months in prison, but he’d spent about a year in jail already.

Another of the 15 defendants, Ashley Dickerson, is alleged to have made financial transactions with the proceeds of the drug ring with the intent to conceal their nature, location, source and ownership. She also allegedly rented cars for others involved the ring to use for trafficking.

Two other defendants, Lebaron Jackson and Marquise Brown, face weapons charges.

The others charged are Andre Smallwood, Daichi Horiace, James Fields, Bruce Johnson, Cherreitha Roach, John Valenti and Samantha Alsup.

All the defendants face a 10-year mandatory minimum term of imprisonment and a maximum term of life, prosecutors said. The five defendants named in the homicide and distribution resulting in death face a 20-year mandatory minimum term of imprisonment and a maximum term of life.

David Carson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.