GREENBELT, Md. — A Bowie man who led a drug trafficking organization by bribing U.S. Postal Service carriers has pleaded guilty to federal drug conspiracy and distribution charges.
Russell Stanley III, 40, admitted to conspiring with others to distribute cocaine throughout Maryland.
One of those people was 35-year-old Jovan Kirk Louis Savage, of Bowie, who Stanley paid $500 each time he picked up a package for him. Savage was responsible for paying off Stanley’s debt with drug sale proceeds.
Two U.S. Postal Service letter carriers, 37-year-old Zakiyya Holloman, of Middle River, and 34-year-old Maurice Vaughn, of Washington, D.C., also got involved by agreeing to divert drug deliveries to Stanley instead of their intended address.
Holloman and Vaughn both serviced routes in the Bowie area.
Hollman diverted cocaine parcels on at least six occasions, receiving a total of at least $3,000 from Stanley.
Court documents make note of at least three instances when Vaughn delivered packages with two kilograms of cocaine, each time in exchange for $200.
To conceal the scheme, Holloman and Vaughn scanned the packages as being delivered to their intended addressees, when in reality they were delivered to Stanley.
To help ensure the carriers didn't call police, Stanley required the postal workers to give their home addresses and had his crew mention knowledge of where their children went to daycare.
In October 2019, Postal Inspectors intercepted one of the drug packages destined for an Upper Marlboro address.
Later, Stanley and Savage worked to pick it up not knowing that law enforcement had already seized it.
The two eventually noticed police prompting Stanley to flee the scene, leaving Savage to be arrested.
On October 9, 2019 investigators executed a search warrant at a home the two shared, which turned up 15 grams of cocaine in a clear baggie and two digital scales.
Investigators found $3,196 on Stanley who confessed to being responsible for at least 40 kilograms of cocaine.
Savage previously pleaded guilty and faces a maximum sentence of life in federal prison. Vaughn and Holloman each pleaded guilty and face a maximum 20 years behind bars for their offenses.
Other participants including Barrington Albert Edwards, Jr., 37 of Bowie, and Delonte Andre Gomez, 39 of Bowie, have also been charged.
Stanley and the government have agreed to an 11 year prison sentence, which still needs a judge's approval. A hearing has been scheduled for June 29.
