A Southeast D.C. couple is facing federal charges after agents say they found 322 grams of suspected fentanyl, loaded firearms, and three children inside their Congress Heights apartment. Katie Shameka Williams, 33, and Kenneth Darnell Smith Jr., 32, were arrested Tuesday when a federal search warrant was executed at their apartment building on the 1600 block of Savannah Street SE, according to prosecutors.
The two are accused of operating an alleged drug trafficking operation out of their home, with investigators documenting at least nine instances of crack cocaine and fentanyl being distributed, as reported by DailyVoice.com. The investigation was carried out by the FBI Washington Field Office Safe Streets Task Force working alongside the Metropolitan Police Department, with prosecution handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia's Violent Crime and Narcotics Trafficking Section, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Officials say they launched the investigation into the narcotics distribution operation in March.
What Agents Found Inside
During the raid, agents recovered approximately 322 grams of suspected fentanyl in both pill and powdered form, along with $1,931 in cash, according to the seed report. They also seized three loaded handguns, a rifle, a drum magazine, multiple additional firearm magazines, and ammunition. The U.S. Attorney's Office provided photographs of the seized evidence, including a bag of suspected fentanyl pills, per the same account.
Officials also found three children inside the apartment at the time of the search, the article notes. The dossier does not detail what custody arrangements followed the discovery, and that question remains open as the case moves forward.
Federal Charges Carry Mandatory Prison Time
Williams and Smith were charged with conspiracy to distribute 40 grams or more of a fentanyl-containing mixture or substance and a cocaine-base-containing mixture or substance. Both made their initial court appearances following their arrests. Under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B), a conspiracy charge involving 40 grams or more of fentanyl carries a statutory mandatory minimum of five years in prison, up to a maximum of 40 years, and fines as high as $5 million for an individual, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A separate charge involving 28 grams or more of crack cocaine carries the same five-year mandatory minimum under the same statute.
Federal sentencing law, including 21 U.S.C. § 860a, treats drug operations conducted in the physical presence of minor children as a major aggravating factor that can trigger additional consecutive prison time, according to the Jarrett Maillet Law Firm. Prosecutors frequently cite the presence of children when arguing against pretrial release in cases like this one.
A Block With a Violent Track Record
The 1600 block of Savannah Street SE has a documented history of gun violence. Hoodline previously reported on a daylight shooting that wounded two people on the same block in May, and the block was also the site of a fatal homicide in 2020. The recovery of loaded guns, high-capacity magazines, and synthetic opioids at a residential address underscores the kind of overlap between firearms and drug trafficking that has repeatedly surfaced in Ward 8.
Using DEA technical guidelines that place a lethal fentanyl dose at 2 milligrams for most adults, the 322 grams seized from the apartment amounts to roughly 161,000 potentially lethal doses. D.C.'s opioid crisis has remained severe for years: the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner investigated 2,515 fatal opioid overdoses between January 2018 and June 2024, with annual deaths reaching 427 in 2023 alone.
Part of a Larger Federal Push
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the charges reflect her office's aggressive commitment to dismantling violent drug networks, removing dangerous traffickers from the streets, and keeping communities safe. Pirro, who was confirmed as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in 2025, said her office will no longer tolerate lawlessness in the nation's capital.
The case is one piece of a broader federal crime surge that stems from President Trump's March 2025 executive order titled Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful, which established a federal task force and expanded federal law enforcement operations across the city. Officials say the surge has produced more than 3,200 drug-related arrests. Hoodline has previously covered the initiative's home-rule legal fight and reported when the task force announced it had reached 10,000 total arrests. Pirro's office also recently announced indictments against 14 people in a separate D.C. drug ring, and the FBI's Safe Streets Task Force has previously dismantled other street-level drug operations in the city, including one near 7th and O Streets NW that resulted in multi-year federal prison sentences for several co-defendants.
