Valfonso Dewitt, also known as “Valentino” and “Val,” aged 72, of Bronx, New York, has been convicted by a federal jury for conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. The jury also found Dewitt guilty on two counts for using his cellular telephone to facilitate illegal drug distribution.
However, he was acquitted on three counts of using his cellular telephone to facilitate illegal drug distribution. The verdict was announced on Monday by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, Special Agent in Charge Jarod Forget of the Drug Enforcement Administration – Washington Division, Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs of the Federal Bureau of Investigation – Washington Field Office Criminal Division, and Chief Marcus Jones of the Montgomery County Police Department.
Evidence presented during Dewitt’s four-day trial indicated that he had conspired with co-defendant James Isaac Gaston, Gaston’s wife Jacqueline Shelton Gaston, and others to distribute fentanyl from January 2019 through at least September 2019. The jury was convinced that Dewitt had distributed almost half a kilogram of pure fentanyl—enough to kill almost 250,000 people—to James Gaston just outside Memphis, Tennessee, in September 2019.
The fentanyl was later seized by law enforcement during a traffic stop on Gaston’s car, shortly after Gaston drove over the I-495 bridge from Virginia into Prince George’s County, Maryland.
James Isaac Gaston, aged 74, and Jacqueline Shelton Gaston, aged 52, both of Lanham, Maryland, had previously pleaded guilty to their roles in the drug distribution conspiracy and are scheduled to be sentenced on May 8, 2023, and June 23, 2023, respectively.
Dewitt now faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in federal prison for the drug conspiracy and a maximum sentence of four years in federal prison for each count of using his cellular phone to facilitate a drug felony. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis have not yet scheduled the sentencing date for Dewitt.
The investigation was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation, which identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States.
U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the DEA, the FBI, and the Montgomery County Police Department for their work in the investigation. He thanked the Prince George’s County Police Department and the Maryland State Police for their assistance. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Jeffrey J. Izant and Geonard F. Butler II, who prosecuted the case.
