Leader of DC barbershop drug-trafficking ring sentenced to 16 years

A D.C. man who ran a large-scale drug-trafficking operation out of a barbershop will spend 16 years in prison.

Anthony Fields, 45, was sentenced Thursday after being convicted of engaging in conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute heroin, PCP, fentanyl, suboxone, marijuana and synthetic marijuana. After his prison term, he will be placed on supervised release for eight years.

During the sentencing, it was found that Fields was selling fentanyl as heroin and that he obstructed the government’s investigation.

In June 2017, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives started investigating drug activity in the Next Level Cuts barbershop on the 2400 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Southeast.

The investigation led to a series of arrests beginning in February 2018, which found firearms, $7,000 in cash, and hundreds of grams of heroin, fentanyl, suboxone and cutting agents.

During Fields’ trial, Prince George’s County police and the Maryland state prosecutor testified about Fields’ arrest in Maryland in 2017, in which they found him with drug paraphernalia and $7,000.

Fields associates include Abdul Samuels, 45, of D.C., Lonnell Tucker, 42, of Temple Hills, Maryland, Daryl Smith, 41, of D.C., James Venable, 47, of Fort Washington, Maryland, and Lacy Hamilton, 42, of Suitland, Maryland. Smith was the manager of the barbershop. One person has not yet been caught.

Fields was on supervised release for a 2002 conviction of assault with intent to kill when he was arrested for his role in the drug-trafficking ring.

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