Former DC drug kingpin Rayful Edmond has died at the age of 60

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PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Notorious DC drug kingpin Rayful Edmond moved from prison to halfway house

Notorious DC drug kingpin Rayful Edmond III has been transferred to community detention in Nashville. According to officials, on Wednesday, July 31, Edmond was transferred to community confinement supervised by the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Nashville Residential Reentry Management Office.

WASHINGTON – Officials have confirmed that notorious drug kingpin Rayful Edmond, the man accused of bringing the crack epidemic to DC, has died at the age of 60.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Edmond died on Tuesday. He had been transferred from the prison to a halfway house in Nashville in late July. His cause of death has not been released at this time.

Who was Rayful Edmond?

Rayful Edmond was a notorious cocaine kingpin who once ruled the Washington, DC drug trade.

He was arrested at the age of 24 and sentenced in federal court in 1990 to life in prison for introducing crack cocaine to DC, which helped earn the city the title of “Murder Capital of the US” in the 1980s.

PAST HISTORY: Rayful Edmond III’s life sentence on cocaine-related charges in DC reduced by federal judge

Edmond was convicted of running a criminal enterprise involving 150 people, raking in $300 million a year and being responsible for at least 30 murders.

He later received another 30-year sentence for dealing massive amounts of drugs from his Pennsylvania prison cell.

After petitioning the court, he was released from federal prison in late July after serving more than three decades of a life sentence, and was placed on community custody in Tennessee.

What people say

FOX 5 spoke with Tyrone Parker, a founding member of the DC-based organization Alliance of Concerned Men, who knew Edmond for years after Edmond’s release.

“He’s fine. He’s happy as you can almost imagine. It’s a miracle he’s home,” Parker said.

PAST HISTORY: Rayful Edmonds’ lawyer defends release of notorious DC drug kingpin: ‘Give him a chance’

“Let’s give the man a chance,” he said. “Yes, he did some terrible things, but we’re talking about 33 years ago. Let’s give him a chance, especially if we think he could help us turn this ship of violence around. And if he’s willing… who am I to say no? Not me.”

Jason Downs, who was Edmond’s attorney for the past seven years, told FOX 5 back in August that “He feels he has served and we believe Mr. Edmond has served and paid his debt to society.”

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