MAJOR DRUG RING PUT OUT OF ACTION

Federal and local authorities yesterday busted one of the biggest and most
sophisticated heroin distribution rings in the District of Columbia's
history, arresting 25 persons and shutting down a $20 million illegal
operation.

The drug ring - named for the man charged with being its leader, Earl
Anthony Garner Sr. - has distributed more than 30 kilograms, or about 66
pounds, of heroin in the District and Prince George's County (Md.) since
1996, according to a massive 69-page federal indictment unsealed yesterday.

Thirty persons - two already in jail and three who were fugitives yesterday
- - face 58 counts of conspiracy to distribute and possession of heroin and
cocaine, criminal enterprise, money laundering and other charges. If
convicted, they could be sentenced to up to life in prison.

"This sends a loud and clear message to drug dealers in the District of
Columbia: Regardless of your poison of choice, we will use all legitimate
and available tools to dismantle the illegal operations," said U.S.
Attorney for the District Wilma A. Lewis.

The group primarily sold drugs in the Langston Dwelling Housing Complex,
near 21st Street and Benning Road NE, near Spingarn and Phelps high
schools, Brown Junior High School and Young Elementary School.

Earl Garner, 49, of Temple Hills, ran the drug ring like a chief executive
officer, employing his son Earl Anthony Garner Jr. and nephew Reginald
Curtis Carter as administrators for packaging, processing and shipping the
drugs, Miss Lewis said.

Using a complex system of cellular phones and pagers, the indictment says
other members of the ring handled storage, redistribution, street-level
selling, profit collection and money laundering - including savings account
deposits and investments in mutual funds.

FBI agents and other law enforcement officials executed 30 search warrants
yesterday morning, catching all but three persons by 7:30 a.m. Police
seized 19 weapons, 16 vehicles, $790,000 in cash, more than 5 kilograms of
heroin, small amounts of cocaine and marijuana and 2,000 methadone tablets.

Authorities also have identified more than $43,000 in drug money in various
bank and investment accounts, said Ellen Knowlton, special agent in charge
of the criminal division in the FBI's Washington Field Office.

The shutdown of the heroin trafficking ring stems from a street-level
investigation that began 18 months ago by 5th District police officers and
investigators with the Inspector General's Office of the Department of
Housing and Urban Development.

Those agencies, along with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI's
Washington Field Office and the office of the U.S. Attorney for the
District, formed a joint task force of 300 law enforcement officers to
target the operation.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has used similar massive federal indictments
against drug dealers and killers recently - notably Starbucks killer Carl
D. Cooper, and Kevin Gray, ringleader of a crack cocaine gang charged with
15 slayings - and Miss Lewis promised similar investigations in the near
future.

"Citizens of the District of Columbia will no longer be ravaged and held
hostage by drug dealers," she said. Miss Lewis and Metropolitan Police
Chief Charles H. Ramsey credited 5th District officers in the "Weed & Seed"
project for fueling the investigation.

Cmdr. Anthony Poteat said his officers began the program in 1993 because of
an open air drug market's proximity to schools and a public housing project.

For the "seed" portion of the initiative, city agencies and officers
sponsored outreach, recreation and education programs, including an annual
trip for several children to Florida, Cmdr. Poteat said.

The "weed" portion included surveillance, purchases of drugs by undercover
officers and other activities, he said.

Crack cocaine and marijuana often are the focus of major drug
investigations, but "heroin has had a firm base among drug addicts in this
city," the FBI's Miss Knowlton said.

Chief Ramsey said his officers will increase patrols in the Langston
Dwelling area to ensure that a new generation of drug dealers doesn't
replace the ring shut down yesterday.

Past indictments of this size usually included charges of homicide or other
violent crimes, but Miss Lewis said "there's no indication so far of the
kind of violence associated with other drug rings."

Nevertheless, she emphasized the drug gang and resulting heroin use in the
neighborhood caused serious "disharmony and problems."