Feds: Man gets 10 years in 'fast-food-style' drug distribution case that left one dead

Federal prosecutors called the drug dealing in a particular block in Detroit a "fast-food-style drug distribution operation."

Drug dealers, they wrote in a sentencing memorandum in April, operated 24/7/365 in an on-demand drive-thru for drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin, which was often fentanyl. Customers, they wrote, were served from their window side with "the option of 'boy' or 'girl' to denote cocaine base or heroin, but lab reports confirm the drugs sold on Yacama as heroin were in fact fentanyl."

At least one person overdosed and died, prosecutors said.

This week, Lavante Brown, the last of seven people charged in the drug distribution operation, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release Wednesday.

"These defendants believed that they could take over areas of our city, destroy neighborhoods, and risk others' lives with impunity, but these sentences should serve as notice that federal law enforcement will not stand idly by while drug dealers do harm to our community," U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said in the release.

Brown, 30, of Detroit, was sentenced Wednesday, nearly a year after he entered into a plea agreement in U.S. District Court. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance and distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death, according to the plea agreement.

Federal prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum that Brown sold drugs in Detroit for years and was part of a group of dealers who controlled this particular block of Yacama and ran the drug operation. The drug dealing occurred between April 2020 and December 2022, per the plea agreement.

They said Brown had been convicted of crimes related to the possession and distribution of controlled substances, "but was seemingly undeterred in his pursuits. Then, in the fall of 2020, Brown's choices had lethal consequences — Brown sold drugs that resulted in the loss of a life."

Brown's attorney, Benton Martin, had no comment Thursday.

Brown, in a handwritten letter to District Judge Bernard Friedman in January, wrote that he grew up on Detroit's east side in a lower-class family, was adopted and faced obstacles, peer pressure and criticism. He said he made "poor choices," but now he had "transitioned into the best version of me," was ready to be a father to his son, was remorseful and asked for the judge to be lenient and consider a second chance.

But federal prosecutors said Brown "failed to take corrective action in his life" and "reengaged in criminal behavior in a way that cost another person's life."

They said in the fall of 2020 Brown sold drugs to another co-conspirator, who also served as a middleman from time to time. On Sept. 14, 2020, the co-conspirator found a buyer, the victim who then died, and asked Brown for drugs. Prosecutors wrote the co-conspirator used some of the drugs and brought the other half to the victim, who overdosed and died later that night.

Investigators found the victim slumped over in a room; his family was in the home. They learned he previously went to the hospital because of reported pain but was not prescribed pain medication and turned to a friend to try to get unprescribed pills. He died of the toxic effects of fentanyl and hydrocodone, per the prosecutor's sentencing memorandum.

They wrote the victim "wasn’t even asking for an illicit opiate on the day he overdosed and died, rather, he was looking for the pain medication the hospital wouldn’t prescribe him."

Ison's release stated all seven people charged in the drug dealing operation pleaded guilty to offenses related to the sales of controlled substances on Yacama. They include:

• Anthony Foster, 38, of Detroit, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

• Willie Swift, 58, of Detroit, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.

• Terrance Hall, 34, of Eastpointe, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

• Dana Hudson, 46, of Detroit, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and was sentenced to five years in prison.

• David Terry, 41, of Harper Woods, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and was sentenced to more than four years in prison.

• Justin Fields, 33, of Rochester Hills, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance. Fields was sentenced to one day custody with credit for time-served, followed by three years of supervised release.

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @challreporter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Feds: Man gets 10 years in 'fast-food-style' drug distribution case