Maryland Drug Dealer Gets 10+Years

A Southern Maryland man was sentenced last week to ten years in a federal penitentiary, plus another eight years of supervised parole. There's no early release in the Federal system, so that's firm.

According to news reports, Fort Washinton native, Jonathan Savoy, was guilty of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. The sentence also reflects Savoy’s status as a career criminal – a determination made by U.S. District Judge John Titus as part of his ruling.

Savoy pleaded guilty to selling and distributing crack cocaine for at least a year long period in 2007 and 2008. Evidence gathered through wire taps and cellular phone monitoring indicated that Savoy was personally responsible for from 50 to 150 grams of crack. This was partially reflected in his sentencing.

Others involved in the same network got from 7 to 20 years in prison. Seventeen have pled guilty and two remain to be sentenced. The purported boss of the operation, Jamohl Swann, also of Fort Washington, got 20 years after a guilty plea.

The laundry list of agencies involved in the investigation is impressive: Drug Enforcement Administration; the Charles County Sheriff’s Office; the IRS-Criminal Investigation; the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office; the Prince George’s County Police Department and the Montgomery County Police Department.

While the IRS may look like the odd one out here, tracking drug money through financial records is a specialty for the agency, and not paying taxes on illegal income is a crime all by itself. The IRS representative is quoted as saying, “This is an important victory for the American public a convicted drug dealer is going to jail for his crimes. The role of IRS CI in narcotics investigations is to follow the money so we can financially disrupt and dismantle major drug trafficking organizations.”