According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Rayful Edmond III, a well-known narcotics trafficker from Washington, D.C., who was found to have brought cocaine into the District, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 60.
In court records, Edmond claimed to have operated the “largest cocaine distribution operation in the history of the nation’s capital,” delivering thousands of pounds of Columbian cocaine to a Northeast Washington neighborhood.
The D.C. judge who had originally condemned Edmond to life in prison later lowered it to 20 years, which runs consecutively with a 30-year term from Pennsylvania.
The infamous Edmond is even credited by some with starting the crack epidemic that led to the capital city becoming known as the murder capital of America.
7News Sam Ford, the former head of the DC Bureau, wrote a lot on Edmond’s case. Shortly after Edmond’s unexpected death, Ford had a conversation with reporter Lianna Golden on Tuesday evening.
In addition to his life sentence, Edmond received a 30-year sentence for facilitating cocaine deals from a federal prison in Pennsylvania. But once he turned informant, his sentences were lowered.
