He was living the high life of a jet-setter in this high-end, high rise in Baltimore's business district, yet police say it all came to an end when the Harford County Narcotics Task Force arrested 23-year old Karon Peoples and raided his exclusive stash.
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"For a young man to have close to half a million dollars in cash to include the assets that we also seized two very high-end, expensive watches,” said Capt. Lee Dunbar, “One of them is preliminarily valued at $70,000. The other watch is valued over $20,000. We're waiting on those appraisals to come back, as well as the cash was actually stored in Louis Vuitton bags."
While the sight of that much cash may grab your attention, it's the 900 grams of heroin, which carries the highest stakes.
Investigators say once the drug is cut, sometimes with potentially deadly fentanyl, that translates into as many as 9,000 gel caps, and similar drugs from this alleged dealer have fueled the local opioid crisis.
"We tied Mr. Peoples to several overdoses here in Harford County, Baltimore County, Carroll County as well as the Eastern Shore,” said Dunbar, “To date, we have six non-fatal overdoses tied to that individual."
Police initially arrested Peoples in early December and discovered his stash, but it took almost a month before they could get a federal indictment returned that should keep him off the street.
"If they're charged down in Baltimore City, we've seen unfortunately there's lesser sentences,” said Dunbar, “Just like he was initially put in Baltimore City through Central Booking on $50,000 and he posted the next day. I think that's absurd. I think that's a disservice to our community."
While the bust may have disrupted the local drug supply momentarily, Peoples is considered a mid-to-upper level dealer, and investigators say there are hundreds, if not thousands more like him dealing from their bases in Baltimore every day.
