Manassas Man Pleads Guilty to Heroin Trafficking

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A Manassas man is facing at least 15 years in a federal prison after pleading guilty last week to conspiracy to distribute heroin.

Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and the FBI’s Washington Field Office announced that Bryan Christopher Samuel, 38, pleaded guilty Thursday night to conspiracy to distribute 700 grams or more of heroin and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Samuel had been scheduled to go on trial Friday in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

Samuel faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison, according to an FBI statement. His guilty plea was accepted by District Judge T.S. Ellis III. Samuel was indicted by a federal grand jury on Dec. 16. His sentencing date was not disclosed.

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The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office with assistance from the Manassas City Police Department.

In his plea agreement, Samuel admitted he “obtained distribution quantities of heroin from various sources of supply around the D.C. metro area as well as the I-95 corridor,” the FBI said. “Typically, Samuel and his co-conspirators would repackage the larger quantities of heroin purchased into individual user amounts, which they would then sell throughout Prince William County.”

Samuel also pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm, “which he used for protection once he began buying and selling larger quantities of narcotics as well as during the robbery of a perceived rival drug dealer,” the FBI said.