Rayful Edmond III, the long-ago drug kingpin whose army of dealers and mountain of profits made him a symbol of the District’s murderous crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s, has been moved from a federal penitentiary to “community confinement” and is set to be released late next year, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Thursday.
Washington, D.C
Former D.C. drug kingpin Rayful Edmond set to be released next year
Edmond, 59, has been behind bars since his arrest in April 1989. Initially sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole, he became a government informant during his decades of incarceration, providing an “unparalleled magnitude … of cooperation,” a judge wrote in 2021 in significantly reducing his sentence.
Now the city’s bygone “king of cocaine,” as he was dubbed, appears to be inching closer to freedom, with “a projected release date” of Nov. 8, 2025, the Bureau of Prisons said.
A lawyer for Edmond did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.
In a statement, the bureau said Edmond was transferred Wednesday to “community confinement” under the supervision of the agency’s Nashville Residential Reentry Management Office.
The Nashville office is responsible for “providing oversight to halfway houses in Kentucky and Tennessee,” according to its website. The bureau declined to say where Edmond is being confined.
“Community confinement means the individual is either [in] home confinement or a Residential Reentry Center,” meaning a halfway house, the statement said. “For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not specify an individual’s specific location while in community confinement.”
Edmond, who was convicted of federal drug-trafficking charges in D.C. and sentenced in 1990, oversaw a sprawling operation that smuggled as much as 1,700 pounds of cocaine into the city each month in the latter part of the 1980s, authorities said. They estimated that Edmond raked in about $2 million per week in those years.
The huge profits available in the crack trade spawned open-air dealing in many areas of the District back then, with competing street crews guarding their turf — and encroaching on others’ territories — through nightly gunfire. As D.C.’s annual homicide toll climbed sharply in the late 1980s and early 1990s, peaking at nearly 500, the city acquired the nickname “America’s murder capital.”
The epidemic of crack dealing and bloodshed ravaged communities all over the country. Edmond himself, though, was never found guilty of any violent crimes.
During his years of imprisonment, authorities said, Edmond cooperated extensively in investigations of drug and homicide cases in the District and elsewhere. In return for his help, federal prosecutors in D.C. asked a judge in 2019 to modify Edmond’s sentence of life without parole, allowing him to someday go free.
“I am very remorseful,” Edmond said at a 2019 court hearing on the government’s motion. It was the first time he had apologized to D.C. residents for the wave of addiction and violence he helped bring to their city. “I am sorry for everybody I hurt, for everybody I disappointed,” he said. “If I ever get the opportunity, I will do my best and whatever it takes to make up for all of my crimes.”
Prosecutors sought an adjusted sentence of 40 years, but U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan went further in his 2021 ruling, reducing Edmond’s sentence to 20 years. While Edmond’s “involvement in the criminal enterprise damaged this community deeply and resulted in the destruction of the lives of many individuals,” Sullivan wrote, the “unparalleled magnitude” of his cooperation warranted a significant reward.
At that point, Edmond already had been behind bars for nearly 32 years, far more time than his new 20-year sentence. But he had another sentence waiting to be served: 30 years in federal prison for dealing drugs in the U.S. penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., while he was an inmate there.
Edmond’s lawyers asked a federal judge in Pennsylvania to reduce that pending 30-year term so it would be covered by the extra time that Edmond had served on his modified sentence in the D.C. case.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Harrisburg, Pa., on Thursday declined to comment on Edmond, referring questions to the Bureau of Prisons. In its statement, the bureau said that Edmond’s effort to have his sentence reduced in Pennsylvania was successful and that his remaining period of incarceration can be measured in double-digit months.
“He has now served over 35 years in federal custody,” the statement noted.
correction
A previous version of this article misstated the date when Edmond is projected to be released from “community confinement.” His projected release date is Nov. 8, 2025. The article has been corrected.
WASHINGTON (7News) — An ice cream truck caught fire in Southeast D.C. on Thursday, the D.C. Fire and EMS Department said.
The commercial vehicle was reported fully engulfed when crews arrived in the 1700 block of Tobias Drive SE.
SEE ALSO | Man, woman injured in Southeast DC double shooting
Firefighters quickly put out the flames and prevented the fire from spreading to nearby buildings.
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No injuries were reported.
WASHINGTON (7News) — The Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy, on Wednesday removed a well-known priest as an exorcist of the archdiocese after he made public comments suggesting that UFO sightings were the work of demons.
McElroy said the archdiocese also was cutting ties with the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, a Washington-based nonprofit headed by the priest, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti.
The archbishop said Rossetti’s statements “linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism.”
“There’s a danger here,” Rossetti said in a May 29 video posted on his Facebook page addressing UFO sightings and the existence of aliens. “As an exorcist I wanted to raise that danger. And that is that demons like to hide. … They don’t want us to know what they’re doing because they’re more effective when we don’t realize it.”
“They can kind of get into your head, you know, and manipulate things in the world to influence us to do evil.”
“It’s my personal belief that probably many if not most of these UFO sightings are in fact demons,” Rossetti added.
Rossetti also said that people can be good Catholics and believe there’s life on other planets, though he does not personally believe life exists elsewhere.
In a statement posted on the St. Michael Center website, Rossetti said he was saddened by the action of the archdiocese.
“I ask forgiveness for any ways that I have not been faithful to the teachings of the Church’s Magisterium, particularly in the cited video on ‘aliens and the demonic,’” he said. “I believe it is of the utmost importance to be obedient to the Church and I will continue to endeavor to subject all that I do and the Center to be thus obedient.”
Rossetti, who has over 148,000 followers on Instagram, is a prominent psychologist as well as an exorcist. His center has specialized in offering spiritual healing for priests troubled by various difficulties.
In 2023, he told The Associated Press there was increasing and renewed appetite for information about demonic possession and exorcism.
Washington, D.C
Nurses at Washington D.C.’s largest hospital call on leadership to reverse planned cuts to maternal health
RNs at MedStar Washington Hospital Center say closure of postpartum unit will disproportionately harm marginalized and underserved communities
Union nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center (MWHC) in Washington, D.C. are demanding that management stop the planned closure of an entire postpartum unit, announced National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU). The hospital notified the union on May 26, 2026 of its intention to eliminate 11 maternal health beds and displace eight nurses by July 26, 2026, leaving MWHC with one postpartum unit.
In a follow-up town hall with staff nurses, Chief Nursing Officer Ariam Yitbarek confirmed the closure. Other leaders have additionally informed staff that the hospital will strictly limit scheduled C-sections and inductions for patients from numerous D.C. maternal health organizations. The list of organizations includes many that primarily serve low-income patients, immigrants, and patients of color, all communities with significantly higher risks of maternal mortality. Additionally, staff were informed that Kaiser Permanente, which notably insures a large number of DC city employees and even many of MWHC’s own workers, will see a strict limit on scheduling inductions and C-sections for their patients as well.
“Closing postpartum unit 5F will gravely impact those most affected by health disparities,” said Stephanie Sims-Coates, RN in the neonatal intensive care unit. “Our low-income families and families of color will be most affected by this closure. Families trust the medical staff at MWHC and plan to come to us for their care. In a city where Black women make up 90 percent of pregnancy-related deaths despite being only half the population, the hospital’s decision to close this unit is a significant mistake.”
Community leaders and healthcare workers are joining the call for MedStar to put patients before profits and keep the unit open. This past weekend, nurses met with D.C. mayoral candidate and Ward 4 councilwoman Janeese Lewis George about the planned closure and the impact it would have on DC’s most vulnerable residents.
“Maternal mortality is a crisis for Washington, DC, and our healthcare system needs to address the crisis immediately, rather than exacerbate the challenges that birthing parents face,” said Councilwoman Janeese Lewis George. “Now is the time to invest in health care, rather than make cuts. I want to work with the hospital to identify solutions that work for patients and the provider.”
“In my time at Washington Hospital Center, I’ve seen the hospital tout its Safe Moms, Safe Babies program and host a community baby shower specifically designed to call attention to the maternal mortality crisis,” said Marcqueata “Tiya” Butler, RN in the Mother/Baby unit. “Their current plan to shut down 11 postpartum beds betrays the hospital’s stated commitments. They are aware of persistent inequities in access to care. We are calling on the hospital to consider the impacts on the community, safeguard the mothers and infants of DC and commit to addressing the maternal mortality rate.”
In 2024, MedStar Health, a registered non-profit, reported $9 billion in operating revenue.
NNOC/NNU represents more than 2,200 registered nurses at Washington Hospital Center.
National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.
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