Federal prosecutors in Washington just unsealed a 21-count indictment charging 14 people in an alleged crack and powder cocaine trafficking conspiracy that operated right next to an elementary school.
According to the Justice Department, the crew sold drugs near Hendley Elementary School in Southeast D.C., close to 4th Street SE and Chesapeake Street SE.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the traffickers were dealing crack cocaine about 300 feet from the school.
Three hundred feet. That is the kind of number that should end any debate about whether D.C. needed a serious law-and-order crackdown.
Today, my office took over a dozen drug traffickers off residential streets. These traffickers showed zero regard for the wellbeing of our community, even selling crack cocaine about 300 feet from an elementary school. This office will continue to pursue serious sentences for… https://t.co/Lrw8qG5Yyt pic.twitter.com/4ZMONqFP8A
— US Attorney Pirro (@USAttyPirro) June 17, 2026
The Justice Department announced the charges on June 17, 2026, after law enforcement executed court-authorized residential search warrants at 15 locations across D.C. and Maryland.
All 14 indicted defendants were arrested, and each is charged with conspiracy to distribute 280 grams or more of cocaine base and 500 grams or more of powder cocaine within 1,000 feet of the school.
Prosecutors say the defendants sold crack in the presence of school-aged children walking to and from Hendley Elementary, turning a residential corridor into an open-air drug market.
DOJ says investigators recovered 28 firearms, 2.4 kilos of crack cocaine, one kilo of powder cocaine, 29 grams of fentanyl, and 12 pounds of marijuana.
The department also tied the case to the Homeland Security Task Force initiative, which brings federal agencies together to target cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and neighborhood crime crews that threaten public safety.
That gives the case a broader D.C. public-safety frame: school-zone drugs, armed crews, and federal charges moving together.
Twenty-eight guns in one neighborhood operation. Those are weapons that are no longer in the hands of people allegedly running drugs past kids on their way to school.
Today, @USAttyPirro announced that a 21-count federal indictment was unsealed charging 14 defendants in connection with a conspiracy that allegedly distributed crack and powder cocaine near Hendley Elementary School in Southeast Washington.
Read more here:… pic.twitter.com/bz3vnRQznM
— U.S. Attorney DC (@USAO_DC) June 17, 2026
This is what coordinated enforcement looks like. The FBI’s Washington field office, the Metropolitan Police, DEA Washington, the Marshals Service, and other agencies all worked the case together.
That is the model President Trump and Pirro have been pushing in the nation’s capital: federal muscle and local police pulling in the same direction instead of working around each other.
For years, residents of these neighborhoods were told to live with the open-air dealing. Now the people who allegedly turned a school zone into a drug market are in custody and facing federal charges.
More Than a Dozen Defendants Indicted in Drug Trafficking Conspiracy: #FBIWFO, @DCPoliceDept, and @DEAWashingtonDC worked together to arrest the defendants, who allegedly distributed crack and powder cocaine near an elementary school in Washington, D.C. https://t.co/KAhEQFjsRV pic.twitter.com/0Gv8VbfxZn
— FBI Washington Field (@FBIWFO) June 17, 2026
The indictment contains allegations, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
But the public-safety stakes are obvious. Prosecutors allege schoolchildren were walking past open-air drug activity, and federal and local law enforcement finally moved to shut it down.
