Former Washington, DC drug kingpin relocated to Nashville federal center for release
By: Kirsten Fiscus
A former Washington D.C. drug kingpin, imprisoned for the last 35 years, has been released to a residential reentry center in Nashville, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Rayful Edmond, III, was initially sentenced to life in prison for “his leading role in a large-scale cocaine distribution operation in the District of Columbia,” according to federal court records. He oversaw an operation that routed more than 1,500 pounds of cocaine through the city each month from 1985 to 1989, profiting about $2 million per week, according to court records.
The flow of drugs fueled violent crimes across the city, officials said, though Edmond was never found guilty of any violent crimes.
Bureau of Prisons residential reentry centers, like the one in Nashville, help inmates nearing release transition back into society. The centers provide employment counseling, job placement and financial management.
There are 80 such centers across the U.S.
Edmond’s sentence was reduced in 2021 to 20 years imprisonment and a life term of supervised release after he testified in other drug trafficking cases, provided information in other drug and cold case homicide investigations and cooperated with authorities that led to a change in phone policies for inmates.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan wrote in his ruling that Edmond’s “involvement in the criminal enterprise damaged this community deeply and resulted in the destruction of the lives of many individuals,” but that his cooperation with government authorities in the years since was noteworthy enough to reduce his sentence.
At that time, Edmond had spent more than 20 years behind bars, but he still had another 30-year sentence, out of Pennsylvania, to serve after he brokered deals between people in the D.C. area and inmates with connections to cocaine production facilities in Colombia.
In 2022, Edmond’s sentence in the Pennsylvania case was twice reduced.
Edmond was relocated Wednesday to Nashville, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. His sentence ends in November 2025.
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