November 15th, 2023 by WCBC Radio
Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today announced the plea and sentencing of Marvin Singletary, 29, and Keontae Moore, 24, both of Baltimore, Maryland, on charges of participation in a criminal organization and distribution of fentanyl. The charges relate to a long-term investigation into a criminal enterprise that was operating and distributing large quantities of heroin and fentanyl in Southwest Baltimore.
On October 18, 2023, Singletary and Moore each pled guilty, before the Honorable Judge Robert Taylor, Jr., of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, to participation in a criminal organization and distribution of fentanyl. Moore received a sentence of 10 years, suspending all but 10 months, with three years of supervised probation. On February 25, 2024, Singletary will be sentenced to seven years of active incarceration.
The investigation was led by the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Unit, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Group 54, and the Baltimore City Police Department’s Homicide and undercover squads. Over the course of a nine-month investigation, law enforcement built a case on a criminal enterprise known as the “1800 Boys” that operated throughout Baltimore City, including in the 1800 block of Wilkens Avenue, where it maintained an open-air drug market. The organization engaged in the illegal sale of various narcotics, including heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine. Investigators observed the organization’s members distributing narcotics daily, participating in thousands of apparent hand-to-hand narcotic transactions over the course of several months. Investigators further discovered that the organization was distributing bulk amounts of narcotics for resale by other drug trafficking organizations.
The 1800 Boys organization was also responsible for acts of violence perpetrated to maintain and further its narcotics operation, including the murder of Marquis Carter. On November 3, 2022, Dayvonta Mackey, who worked as a street-level distributor for the organization and while in the area of the organization’s narcotics operation, shot Mr. Carter in the head and neck. Mackey then went to the rear alley of the 1800 block of Wilkens Avenue and, just a few minutes later, exited through the front door of an identified narcotics stash location used by the organization. On November 5, 2022, Mackey was found and arrested by police for Mr. Carter’s murder while at that same stash location. Investigators learned that Mackey shot Mr. Carter as a result of a dispute over the organization’s narcotics territory.
The organization exerted control over its territory through acts of violence, such as the murder of Mr. Carter and the regular possession of firearms while distributing narcotics around Wilkens Avenue and at additional stash locations. As a result of search and seizure warrants executed on November 15, 2022, detectives recovered three handguns, one assault-style rifle, more than 700 grams of a fentanyl and heroin mixture, more than 300 grams of cocaine, more than 400 grams of marijuana, and $6,730 in U.S. currency. Singletary and Moore were two of nine defendants charged in this investigation.
