A 49-year-old Baltimore man has pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges after investigators say a search of his home turned up nearly a kilogram of heroin, three kilograms of cocaine, and more than $151,000 in cash. Kevin Lomax admitted to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, a case built on a March 2025 raid that also recovered guns, ammunition, and a satellite phone.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, together with the Drug Enforcement Administration's Washington Division and the Baltimore Police Department, announced the guilty plea Thursday, according to WBFF. U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes, DEA Special Agent in Charge Christopher C. Goumenis, and Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley jointly announced the plea, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Hayes was formally reappointed as U.S. Attorney in June 2025 after serving in the role on an interim basis since February of that year, having previously led the office's Southern Division, per the same agency.
According to the guilty plea, the DEA received information in January 2024 that Lomax was trafficking drugs in Baltimore and was operating as a high-volume dealer. That tip led agents to execute a search warrant at Lomax's Baltimore home on March 19, 2025, per WBFF's report.
What Agents Found Inside the Home
The haul from that search was extensive. DEA agents seized an estimated 3,000 grams of cocaine, 1,000 grams of heroin, 1,787 grams of psilocin, 105 grams of oxycodone, and 15 grams of MDMA, according to WBFF. Law enforcement also recovered three guns, 25 rounds of ammunition, seven cellphones, a satellite phone, and a journal containing ledger notes.
Investigators additionally recovered $151,178 in cash from the property, the outlet reported. The mix of encrypted communication devices and cash alongside the drugs points to the kind of operation federal prosecutors have increasingly targeted in Baltimore under a broader task force push.
Mandatory Minimum Tied to Heroin Weight
Lomax's plea covers possession with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of a mixture containing a detectable amount of heroin, a threshold that carries specific consequences under federal law. Under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A), that quantity triggers a statutory mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison up to life, with no possibility of federal parole, according to the Legal Information Institute. A federal district judge will determine Lomax's ultimate sentence, weighing the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, WBFF reported.
The prosecution moved forward under the Homeland Security Task Force framework created by Executive Order 14159, signed in January 2025, which directs federal, state, and local agencies to jointly dismantle drug trafficking rings, according to the Federal Register. That structure has underpinned a string of Baltimore-area prosecutions over the past year, including a March federal sentencing tied to a Northeast Baltimore stash house raid that yielded over 3,600 grams of fentanyl, as Hoodline previously reported.
A Broader Pattern in Maryland's Drug Supply
Lomax's stash reflects a trend that Maryland health officials have been tracking closely. Polysubstance overdose deaths involving both opioids and stimulants rose from 42% in 2019 to 53% in 2024 statewide, according to a report from the Maryland Department of Health. The same report found that non-injection methods of drug use, including snorting, smoking, and ingestion, overtook injection as the leading method in fatal overdoses starting in 2022.
The state created a centralized Office of Overdose Response within its health department in December 2023 to coordinate enforcement and harm-reduction efforts, with Governor Wes Moore framing the move as a unified public safety and public health priority, according to Maryland state records. That coordination effort has run alongside a series of federal crackdowns in Baltimore, including 19 indictments secured in December against three West Baltimore trafficking rings and the dismantling of a Texas-to-Maryland cocaine pipeline the previous month, both previously covered by Hoodline.
Key details remain unresolved in Lomax's case. It is not yet known when he will be formally sentenced, which federal district judge has been assigned to the case, or whether any co-conspirators or suppliers were identified through the ledgers and satellite phone recovered during the search, according to the Justice Department's announcement. The final terms of his plea agreement regarding the firearms found in his home have also not been disclosed.
