Last 2 defendants plead guilty in Hollygrove drug ring case targeting dealers in ‘the Zoo’ | Courts

A council of six men convened a meeting in Hollygrove in March 2016 to discuss a business problem, according to papers filed this week in federal court.

They were reaping huge profits from an in-demand product: heroin, as well as fentanyl. The men ran a drug ring in the neighborhood, which some locals called “the Zoo,” after a song by the rapper Fetty Wap about the Hollygrove drug trade.

But they had started to suspect that federal agents were watching their every move.

One month and two gun battles later, their fears proved to be well-founded when authorities secured an indictment against all six men in the group. On Wednesday, the last two defendants in the case pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Vance under plea agreements that will see them each serve at least five years in prison.

In addition to pleading, Jonathan “Chop” Lawrence and Vonzo “Dark Low” Magee put their signatures on confessions that provide an intimate look at the drug ring.

The documents reveal that federal agents were trailing the co-conspirators for months, including the day of the meeting, and provide new details on the violent group that was willing to kill to protect its share of the illicit business.

Lawrence was a central focus of the joint local and federal investigation that began in 2015, according to several court records. Agents believed he was a “significant” drug distributor in Hollygrove.

The FBI’s New Orleans Gang Task Force began to conduct supervised drug purchases, drug seizures and wiretaps and to collect cooperating drug users’ statements.

The drug sales occurred on a daily basis, according to prosecutors in U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser’s office. Lawrence bought heroin by the kilogram from a Houston-based supplier, coordinated associates’ street sales and sold the drug to users himself.

Lawrence once told a co-defendant, Donald Marcelin, on a wiretapped phone call that a customer was coming his way.

“They want a ball,” Lawrence said, referring to an eighth of an ounce of heroin. “You got enough for them?”

The group packaged and stashed heroin — and guns — at a house occupied by one of the defendants in the 3900 block of Hamilton Street in the Dixon neighborhood, which prosecutors referred to as “Eastside Hollygrove.”

Can’t see the video below? Click here. 

The guns were not just for show, according to prosecutors. Federal agents believe that Lawrence, Magee, Dwayne Labranch, Brandon Hall and Brian Maxson all used them.

Two shootings on March 8, 2016, and April 16, 2016, targeted a rival drug dealer who is identified in the court papers only by his nickname, “Fresh.”

Federal agents said that on March 7 and March 8, they heard Lawrence, Hall and Labranch plotting a shooting on wiretapped lines. The agents watched a tan Trailblazer drive into Hollygrove and then — for reasons not explained in the court records — stopped following it.

Minutes later, the Trailblazer drove past “Fresh” as he stood in front of the now-shuttered Mel’s Food Store at 4038 Gen. Ogden St. Several people opened fire on “Fresh,” who was not hit and managed to return fire.

On a phone call that night in which he talked about “Fresh,” Lawrence said, “That b**** got nine lives.”

In the second shooting, at Monroe Street and Airline Highway, “Fresh” was hit in the leg. But Lawrence was also accidentally shot by Hall, according to court papers.

Days later, the curtain began to fall on the group. Federal agents obtained an indictment on April 21, 2016, and ended their wiretap the next day.

This week, Lawrence pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl, one count of conspiring to possess firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking and one count of discharging a firearm in a school zone. He faces a minimum 15-year sentence.

Magee pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He faces a minimum five-year sentence.

The men are tentatively set for sentencing on Aug. 7. Their lawyers did not immediately return requests for comment.

The other six defendants — Lance Stovall, Aloysius Korieocha, Maxson, Labranch, Hall and Marcelin — all pleaded guilty previously.

Law enforcement’s scrutiny of the drug trade in the neighborhood continues, however. In February, federal prosecutors unveiled heroin and crack cocaine conspiracy charges against a corner store manager and six other men.

The corner shop was Mel’s Food Store, which residents had long complained was an eyesore and the site of frequent drug sales.

Some of the music video for Fetty Wap’s song “The Zoo,” with local rappers Hollygrove Keem and Jay Jones, was filmed in front of the business.

Follow Matt Sledge on Twitter, @mgsledge.