Troy Man Becomes 25th and Final Guilty Plea in 15,000-Pound Marijuana Ring

A federal drug trafficking case that stretched from a strip-mall shipping storefront in Fresno, California, to fortified stash houses in Albany has finally closed its books. Dwight A. Singletary II, 44, of Fresno and Troy, pleaded guilty on Tuesday as the 25th and final defendant convicted in the sprawling conspiracy, entering a plea deal that recommends a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison.

Singletary was originally charged under an indictment that carried statutory penalties ranging from 10 years to life, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Enforcement Division marked the milestone this week, and the agency's own account, posted on X by DEANewYork, framed it as the end of a case that moved more than 15,000 pounds of marijuana from California into the Capital Region and other communities nationwide.

A Storefront Turned Drug Pipeline

Between April 2017 and June 2022, the organization shipped roughly 1,292 packages containing 15,582 pounds of marijuana from a Fresno storefront to New York's Capital Region alone, per the Justice Department's account of the case. The operation ran through a commercial shipping business called Fast Pack & Ship, which Singletary helped finance the purchase of in 2018 before ownership shifted in April 2020 to co-defendant McKenzie Merrialice Coles, working under a corporate entity known as M.M.M.C. Management, Inc.

The network used commercial UPS and FedEx services to move product across at least 21 states, listing fake shipper names and sealing boxes with eBay-branded packing tape to slip past security screening, the same DOJ account states. DEA Special Agent in Charge Farhana Islam said in a statement that the group also disguised shipments in dog food containers and luggage while exploiting the nation's commercial shipping system to move thousands of pounds of marijuana across the country.

Cash, Cashier's Checks and Fresno Real Estate

Islam said in her statement that the enterprise laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds through cash couriers, financial transactions and real estate, and the case files bear that out. Singletary and Coles funneled drug money into two Fresno homes worth a combined $820,000, buying cashier's checks with cash profits, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Those purchases included individual houses on West Acacia priced at $430,000 and $390,000.

The laundering reached directly into Troy's housing stock as well. Enterprise members used shell entities like DAS Empire, Inc. to buy a Troy home for just $9,000 in 2016, then paid contractors in cash drug proceeds to renovate local properties before flipping them, the DEA's account notes. Proceeds were also structured into cashier's checks kept just under the federal $10,000 reporting threshold to avoid detection.

A Cash Bust at Albany Airport

Federal agents did not only trace the money on paper. In June 2020, DEA agents intercepted $179,710 in cash drug proceeds from co-conspirator Kristle Walker as she tried to board a flight from Albany International Airport to Fresno, according to the Justice Department. Walker later admitted the cash belonged to Singletary and pleaded guilty to money laundering and making false statements to the DEA.

Street-level distribution in Upstate New York ran through what investigators call knock spots — fortified residences where buyers purchase drugs through a slot in the door. At one Albany location, federal agents seized 675 pounds of marijuana, boxes from Fast Pack & Ship, and a .380 caliber handgun, illustrating how the commercial trafficking network fed directly into armed street-level operations.

A Former School Board Member's Role

Among the 25 convicted defendants was Rosemary Coles, a 71-year-old former Troy City School Board member who pleaded guilty in July 2023 to receiving packages containing up to 35 pounds of marijuana shipped to her home by her daughter, per the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Investigators say Rosemary Coles coordinated the shipments via text message with her daughter, McKenzie Coles, in California.

Federal Law Trumps State Legalization

The case highlights a jurisdictional tension that has shadowed cannabis enforcement since New York legalized adult-use marijuana under the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act in March 2021. Despite that state law, federal prosecutors secured convictions for all 25 defendants under the federal Controlled Substances Act, which still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, according to the same DOJ reporting.

That gap between state and federal treatment of cannabis has surfaced in other Upstate New York cases Hoodline has covered, including a Syracuse case involving a 200-pound marijuana smuggling conviction earlier this year and a broader regional sweep that produced 83 arrests. Islam said the DEA and its law enforcement partners have and will always continue to relentlessly pursue drug trafficking organizations at every level, from leadership and suppliers to distributors and those responsible for laundering their profits.

With Singletary's guilty plea, all 25 defendants named in the multi-year investigation — conducted by the DEA, ATF, Homeland Security Investigations and the Troy Police Department — have now been convicted, closing out one of the region's largest cannabis trafficking prosecutions since state legalization.