Donte Drummond was found guilty of multiple felonies after an eight-day trial, while Shawn Oliver pleaded guilty in a three-count agreement in a drug-conspiracy case tied to two mass overdoses in Baltimore's Penn North neighborhood.
Drummond was found guilty of multiple felonies in the eight-day trial, while Oliver pleaded guilty in a three-count agreement, according to The Baltimore Sun. The case stems from an incident at North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue where at least 25 people were treated after experiencing what officials believe to be overdoses, the paper reported. Baltimore City Fire Department paramedics were seen transporting a woman on a stretcher from the intersection amid the chaos.
James Bentley II, a spokesperson for the city prosecutors' office, said the office could not comment on related matters, per the same Sun report.
A Summer of Overdose Emergencies in Penn North
The Penn North mass overdoses that prompted the prosecution occurred last year, but the neighborhood has faced repeated crises since. Two separate mass-overdose incidents in Penn North in July sent nearly 32 people to the hospital, according to CBS News Baltimore. It remains unclear whether that tally and the 25 people treated at North and Pennsylvania avenues refer to the same event or separate incidents.
The station's report also noted that in early October, seven people were hospitalized after police reported that 11 more had overdosed in the same area. Those episodes fed into a broader crackdown: the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office said 19 people were indicted in connection with drug-trafficking organizations operating in West Baltimore.
Investigators Traced Two Trafficking Groups
Court records described in the CBS Baltimore account show that in January, the Baltimore Police Department's Group Violence Unit began investigating a drug-trafficking group operating near the 700 block of Cumberland Street and the 1700 block of North Carey Street. That group allegedly sold heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl marketed under the street name “550.”
Search warrants obtained Nov. 12 led to the seizure of nearly 660 grams of suspected fentanyl, 1,300 suspected-fentanyl capsules, drug-manufacturing equipment, three handguns, and $10,000 in cash, the same report states. A second trafficking group, operating near the 1700 block of North Calhoun Street, allegedly sold cocaine and fentanyl advertised as “Six-Nine.” During a search of that operation on Aug. 1, police recovered 300 suspected fentanyl and heroin capsules, 19 vials of suspected crack cocaine, 15 grams of suspected fentanyl, and two grams of suspected crack cocaine.
A Citywide and Statewide Overdose Crisis
The Penn North prosecutions unfold amid concerns about overdose deaths in Baltimore City. Health officials have also reported carfentanil in August 2025 samples from local syringe service programs; the drug had been detected in Maryland fatal overdose data earlier that year.
Statewide, the drug supply remains dangerous.
Mass overdose clusters tied to trafficking networks are not unique to Baltimore. A 2021 case in Berks County, Pennsylvania, involved a drug ring linked to a rash of mass overdoses that hospitalized 101 people over a matter of a few days in mid-September; raids dismantling the linked drug ring took place in January 2022, according to the Reading Eagle.
