Bowie Man Pleads Guilty To Running Cocaine Ring

A Bowie man who led a cocaine smuggling ring pleaded guilty Tuesday to multiple charges in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence.

Kedrick Arnold Jenifer, 44, admitted in federal court in Baltimore that he oversaw the distribution of at least 450 kilograms of cocaine in the Baltimore area and Woodbridge, Va., between August 2013 and October 2014, when he was arrested, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

At the time of his arrest, the government seized from Jenifer a 2013 Rolls Royce valued at nearly $300,000, as well as other high-end vehicles and large sums of money. Jenifer also owns World Fed Apparel Inc., a clothing store in Baltimore, and co-owns Flavor Factory, “which is believed to own an ice cream franchise in Baltimore,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Jenifer’s drug trafficking organization smuggled cocaine from Houston to Baltimore and cash in the opposite direction, according to prosecutors. The cocaine was shipped in the hidden compartments of so-called “courier vehicles,”and law enforcement authorities spotted Jenifer removing the cocaine from the compartments and distributing it to members of his gang at the RCH Plaza in Baltimore.

Jenifer’s organization also shipped cocaine to Woodbridge, where it was received for distribution by Thomas Simmons, 38, prosecutors said. Simmons, of Hampton, Va., previously pleaded guilty to participation in the cocaine ring.

Four co-conspirators from Baltimore have also pleaded guilty: Brooke Renee Lunn, 49; William Hegie, 55; Kermit Clark, 45; and Elroy Johnson, 49. Like Simmons, three were sentenced to 10 years in prison; Lunn was sentenced to 12 years.

Jenifer was indicted last year on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute at least 5 kilograms of cocaine. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 26 by U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett.

If the federal court accepts his plea deal with the 20-year sentence, Jenifer has also agreed to forfeit three properties in Baltimore and one in North Miami, Fla., as well as a boat, prosecutors said.