Federal officials announced 19 people have been indicted in connection with an alleged cocaine trafficking organization accused of running drug houses across the Dallas area, and six of those charged remain at large. Investigators say the operation moved kilos of cocaine and other drugs out of five alleged trap houses positioned near schools, parks and community centers, some of which allegedly operated for years.
Ryan Raybould, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, hosted a news briefing in Dallas to detail the case, according to CBS News Texas. He was joined by representatives from the Dallas Police Department, the DEA, the FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, all of whom worked the case together. Raybould said three of the five alleged trap houses were clustered in a single neighborhood, and that some locations had been running for years before agents moved in.
According to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas said the 19 defendants face a combined 24 counts tied to the drug trafficking case. Homeland Security Task Force investigators identified the five alleged drug houses at locations on Roberts Avenue, Munger Avenue, Cedar Mountain Circle, Wood Meadow Parkway and Abrams Road, per the station's report. Thirteen of the 19 people charged have already been arrested, with the Dallas Police Department assisting task force investigators in the case, the outlet reported.
Alleged Ringleaders and the Network's Timeline
Raybould said Avery Wayne Davis, also known as “Addy,” and Sterling Lawrence Taylor, also known as “Bo,” allegedly led the large-scale cocaine trafficking network, per the same account from NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. Investigators say the network operated from roughly mid-2023 through early 2025. A DEA official told reporters at the briefing that the organization brought in drugs weekly and functioned with a set hierarchy, defined roles and surveillance, as reported by CBS News Texas.
Authorities said the seizures tied to the case included approximately 28,000 grams of illicit narcotics, eight firearms and more than $736,000 in suspected drug-trafficking proceeds, according to the station's report. Raybould also emphasized that all 19 people indicted were adults, CBS News Texas noted.
How This Case Compares to Recent North Texas Prosecutions
The Dallas indictment lands amid a string of recent federal drug cases out of North Texas. In April, a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas convicted Jamarian Augustus Hewitt, known as “Zillionaire JJ,” on charges of trafficking cocaine and methamphetamine along with related conspiracy counts, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, Northern District of Texas. In a separate 2024 case, court documents described a Dallas motel where a defendant and coconspirators allegedly cut, packaged and distributed fentanyl, heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, the Justice Department has said.
Another recent case closed out in May, when the Justice Department said 13 defendants were convicted and sentenced to prison as part of a Homeland Security Task Force operation that seized marijuana, crack cocaine, cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, firearms, glock switches and cash. Those cases add context to the scale investigators describe in the current Dallas indictment, though none of the earlier prosecutions are directly connected to the 19 people charged this week.
The current case remains active, with six defendants still being sought by authorities. Federal officials did not release further details at the briefing about arrests still pending or a court schedule for those already in custody.
