Valfonso Dewitt, Fentanyl Conspiracy, Maryland 2023

A devastating fentanyl trafficking operation has been dealt a major blow in Maryland, with 72-year-old New York man Valfonso Dewitt, also known as ‘Valentino’ and ‘Val,’ sentenced to 121 months in federal prison for conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.

The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, on March 2023, following a four-day trial. Dewitt, who was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, as well as two counts of using his cellular telephone to facilitate a felony drug offense, was also sentenced to five years of supervised release.

The evidence presented at Dewitt’s trial revealed that from January 2019 through at least September 2019, he conspired with co-defendants James Isaac Gaston, Jacqueline Shelton Gaston, and others to distribute fentanyl. In September 2019, Dewitt distributed nearly half a kilogram of pure fentanyl—enough to kill almost 250,000 people—to James Gaston just outside Memphis, Tennessee.

Approximately 14 hours later, law enforcement seized the fentanyl 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.

Co-defendant James Isaac Gaston, age 74, of Lanham, Maryland, was sentenced to six years in federal prison for his role in the drug distribution conspiracy. Co-defendant Jacqueline Shelton Gaston, age 52, also of Lanham, Maryland, pleaded guilty to her role in the conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 23, 2023.

This case is 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 and thanked the Prince George’s County Police Department and the Maryland State Police for their assistance.

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