BLOOD STREET GANG MEMBER

AND COLUMBIA MAN

FOUND GUILTY ON DRUG CHARGES IN FEDERAL COURT

COLUMBIA, South Carolina -- United States Attorney REGINALD I. LLOYD stated today that QUENELL WALTERS, age 25, and P.W. FERGUSON, age 33, both of the McDuffie Avenue area of Columbia, South Carolina were found guilty today by a jury in federal court for violations of federal drug laws. The two were charged with one count of aiding and abetting a distribution of crack cocaine as well as one count of participating in a conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of crack cocaine.

Both men will be sentenced at a later date by Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., Chief United States District Court Judge, who presided over the 3-day trial. Walters faces a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years and Ferguson faces a mandatory life sentence under federal law due to previous felony drug convictions.

Mr. Lloyd stated that the evidence at trial showed that both men participated in a drug conspiracy in the McDuffie Avenue and Gonzales Gardens area in downtown Columbia. At trial officers with the Columbia Police Department testified that they began a six-year long investigation into drug dealing activity in the area. The Columbia Police Department was aided in its investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Columbia Violent Gang Task Force which determined the drug dealing in the area was controlled by the Gangsta Killer Bloods or “GKB”, a set of the United Blood Nation originating from New York.

Mr. Lloyd stated the government introduced evidence that the GKB came into the area in 2000 and began to exert its control of the neighborhood. Over the next six years, the GKB determined who could sell drugs in the area by excluding members of rival gangs and others.

The jury heard evidence that Walters was a member of the gang who dealt over 160 grams of crack cocaine during the conspiracy. Although Ferguson was not a member of the gang, the government presented evidence that Ferguson was allowed to sell on McDuffie Avenue by the Bloods because he lived there and was accepted by the gang. The jury determined that Ferguson was responsible for selling 50 grams or more of crack cocaine during the course of the conspiracy.

Mr. Lloyd stated Walters and Ferguson were indicted along with nineteen others in a twenty-eight count Indictment that charged the defendants with violations of federal drug laws. All other defendants have previously plead guilty. Those include Gangsta Killer Blood: Gary Demetrius Faust, a/k/a “Uzi”, Michael Fuwiley, a/k/a “Mizzle”, Eddie Kamil Guild, Dewayne Jamellow Woods, and self-described gang associate Jarvis Craft.

Assistant United States Attorneys Todd Hagins and J.D. Rowell of the Columbia office prosecuted the case.

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