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Aberdeen resident Che Daron Durbin, 44, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release for his role in the drug distribution ring that proliferated in Harford County.
Specifically, Durbin was sentenced after being convicted in an eight-day trial of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine and for two counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine throughout parts of Maryland.
Durbin was the subject of an investigation by the Harford County Drug Task Force in May 2019, after being tipped off about drug trafficking in Southern Maryland, by a US Postal Inspector who spotted a suspicious package that was heading to his mother's home in Aberdeen.
Officials say that detectives watched a mail carrier deliver the suspicious package to Durbin, who took it into the apartment. Shortly thereafter, co-conspirator Jameka Cara Thompson, 42, of Aberdeen, left the apartment with the parcel and drove off, leading law enforcement to obtain a search warrant for her vehicle.
Inside Thompson’s vehicle, prosecutors said that investigators found a kilogram of compressed cocaine that had been sent by Jack Anderson IV, from his Arizona home.
In January 2020, investigators were tipped off again by a US Postal Inspector when Durbin sent a package from Havre de Grace to Anderson in Arizona that was intercepted and contained more than $82,000 in cash that was packaged inside a wireless headphones box.
Federal investigators also intercepted Durbin communicating with Anderson, co-conspirator Terrell Darnell Walton, 36, of Delaware, speaking in a coded language about the amount of drugs and the price.
According to prosecutors, in May 2020, law enforcement surveilled Durbin meeting with Anderson at a Tucson, Arizona hotel. Soon after the meeting, Durbin picked Thompson up at the Tucson Airport and drove her back to his hotel room.
Durbin flew back to Maryland the following day and Thompson ultimately obtained a bulk supply of cocaine from Anderson on Durbin’s behalf, they said.
Thompson drove cross-country from Arizona to Harford County, where she was arrested on May 12, 2020, while in possession of nearly 1.5 kilograms of cocaine. Durbin was also arrested.
According to trial testimony, over the course of the conspiracy Thompson made at least eight similar trips on Durbin’s behalf, transporting almost 40 kilograms of cocaine to Maryland for Durbin to distribute.
Durbin's co-conspirators have already been sentenced, including:
- Walton was convicted at trial for the drug conspiracy and sentenced to 13 years in prison in September;
- Anderson was sentenced to 126 months in prison in December 2021 for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine;
- Thompson was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison;
- Gerrick Devlon Jackson, 40, of Havre de Grace, was sentenced to 72 months in prison;
- Michael Ronnell Wells, 38, of Forest Hills, was sentenced to 71 months in prison.
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