Rayful Edmond

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Rayful Edmond III, (born November 26, 1964), was a notorious drug dealer who is largely credited with introducing crack cocaine into the Washington, D.C. area.

[edit] Criminal career

Edmond was alleged to have moved In an indictment involving two of Edmond's associates, it said that they bought between 500 and 1,000 kilos over a 10 month period in 1992 from the Trujillo-Blanco brothers, who were associated with the Medellin cartel, and sold the drugs to Washington area wholesalers. He was known to have spent some $457,619 in an exclusive Georgetown store (Linea Pitti, specializing in Italian men's clothing) owned by Charles Wynn who was later convicted on 34 counts of money laundering.

Edmond was an avid fan of the Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team. He loved the image of the Hoyas as "Black America's Team," the first team of the hip-hop inner-city youth, always cast as the dark, intimidating villain. Edmond revered the tenacity, snarl and swagger the Hoyas played with, so much that when his soldiers were gunned down, they were always buried in Georgetown jerseys ^[1].

At the height of his empire, Edmond became very friendly with several Hoya players. When Georgetown University basketball coach (and D.C. native) John Thompson received word of what was happening, he sent word through his sources to have Edmond meet him at his office at McDonough Gymnasium. When Edmond arrived, Thompson was initially cordial, and informed Edmond that he needed to cease all contacts with his players post haste, specifically Alonzo Mourning, whom had befriended Edmond^[2]. When Edmond tried to tell him not to worry, that Mourning was not involved in anything illegal, the 6'10" Thompson stood up and put his finger in Edmond's face. A profanity-laced tirade ensued, in which Thompson told Edmond not to (expletive) with him, and that he was not going to repeat himself: stay the (expletive) away from his players, or Edmond would suffer serious consequences^[3]. By all accounts, Edmond never associated with another Hoya player on a personal level . It is believed that Thompson is the only person to stand up to Edmond without consequence (see below).

Edmond was arrested in 1989 at the age of 24. His arrest and subsequent trial were widely covered by local and national media. Judicial officials, fearful of reprisals from members of Edmond's gang, imposed unprecedented security during the trial. Jurors' identities were kept secret before, during, and after trial, and their seating area was enclosed in bulletproof glass. Edmond was jailed at the maximum security facility at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia and flown to the Federal Court House in Washington, D.C. by helicopter each day for his trial. Authorities took this unusual step due to heightened fears of an armed escape attempt. This gang was believed to have committed over 40 murders including the attempted murder of a local pastor, the Reverend Mr. Bynum, who was shot 12 times during an anti-drug march in his Orleans Place neighborhood.

Edmond was eventually sentenced to life in prison. His mother, Constance "Bootsie" Perry, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for participating in his criminal enterprise. Several of his sisters and cousins also received sentences.

Rayful continued to deal after being incarcerated in Lewisburgh, PA federal prison. He hooked up with Dixon Dario and Osvaldo “Chicky” Trujillo-Blanco (son of Griselda "Godmother" Trujillo Blanco) who shared the same cell block with him. Rayful was setting up deals between D.C. area traffickers and his Colombian connect (Dario and Blanco) while incarcerated.(2) In 1996, Edmond and another drug dealer from Atlanta, named Lowe, were convicted after conducting drug business from a federal prison phone. Edmond received an additional 30-year sentence. Edmond's case is one of the most notorious abuses of such phone privileges,^[4] and an embarrassment for the Bureau of Prisons. In an interview with the Bureau of Prisons, Edmond said he had spent several hours every day on the telephone, occasionally using two lines simultaneously to conduct his drug business.

Following this conviction, Edmond became a government informant in order to secure his mother's release from prison and a reduced sentence. He is no longer incarcerated, and Edmond is now part of the United States Federal Witness Protection Program.