October 16, 2019 — Infamous former Washington D.C. drug tycoon Rayful Edmond began his cooperation by dismantling of the drug empire he had left behind when he was arrested and jailed in April 1989. Rodney (The Great Rasoo) Moore, Edmond’s protégé, took over the multi-million dollar organization and ran it for the next decade, with Edmond himself acting as Moore’s top advisor from behind prison walls – until Edmond flipped and brought the whole kingdom crumbling to the ground, linking his crew to 31 gangland homicides.
Moore was personally tied to a dozen slayings. His top enforcer, Kevin (K Rock) Gray, had a role in 22 gang-related murders.
This week, Edmond, 54, returns to Washington D.C. for the first time since 2002 when he was the star witness at Moore’s trial. He has a hearing on his own case this time. Edmond was sentenced to life in prison in 1990. He was busted again while locked up for brokering a $200,000,000 cocaine deal and began cooperating.
Federal prosecutors filed a motion back in the winter seeking a sentence reduction for Edmond, asking U.S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan to trim the life sentence to 40 years. Attorneys for Edmond are asking for a ruling of time served. Sullivan will hear testimony Wednesday and Thursday. He still has a Pennsylvania state drug case to do time for following a release from federal custody. Edmond’s legal team is hoping his judge in Pennsylvania re-sentences him to time served as well.
The legend of Rayful Edmund stretches far and wide along the east coast. Polished and flamboyant, Edmond ruled the D.C. underworld with panache during the height of the crack era and got filthy rich – authorities estimate his organization had cleared between 30 and 50 million dollars at the time of his first arrest. Hip-hop superstars Jay-Z and Rick Ross have name-checked Edmond in their raps, cementing his status as a street legend beyond the borders of the Beltway. The Washington Post printed more than 300 articles on Edmond’s reign, indictment and trial in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The 54-year old Moore once stabbed a man who owed Edmond a $200,000 drug debt in a bowling alley. He got his start as Edmond’s right-hand man and main collector. Moore was often used to relay messages between Edmund and his second in command and street boss Tony Lewis, according to Edmond’s 1989 case.
In May 2000, the DEA swept in and indicted Moore and 12 of his lieutenants based on intelligence mostly gleaned from Edmond, who cut a deal for his mom “Bootsy” to get out of prison (she was nailed in his case) as part of his cooperation agreement in the case against his own organization. Moore was convicted at his 2002 trial and is serving life in prison at a federal correctional facility in North Carolina.
The post A Homecoming Of Sorts: Notorious Drug Boss Rayful Edmond Returns To D.C. For Re-Sentencing Hearing appeared first on The Gangster Report.