A federal drug case tied to a Dumfries motel has resulted in an 18-year-and-four-month prison sentence for Rashard Perrish Smith, 34, of Baltimore. Prosecutors said Smith helped run a fentanyl and cocaine operation from the Red Carpet Inn, where at least two guests fatally overdosed in 2025. Smith was one of five defendants sentenced in the case.
Court records cited by potomaclocal.com indicate that Smith and co-defendant Joshua Roderick, 41, of Alexandria, began visiting and sometimes living at the Red Carpet Inn as early as February 2024. They regularly sold fentanyl and cocaine to customers at the motel. Roderick was sentenced on Sept. 18 to 15 years and 10 months in prison.
Court Records Trace Drug Activity to the Motel
The motel was operated by Kosha Sharma, 53, and her husband, Tarun Sharma, 55, according to the report. Court documents described how the couple directed illicit activity to the third floor and limited access to that area. The motel had become known locally as a place to obtain narcotics and commercial sex, the documents said.
Court documents referenced in the report say Smith and Roderick supplied narcotics, including fentanyl, to women engaged in commercial sex at the motel in exchange for part of their earnings. Guests overdosed repeatedly during the conspiracy. At least two overdoses in 2025 were fatal, and Kosha Sharma found both victims in third-floor rooms, the report said.
Undercover Operations Led to a January Raid
The FBI, Virginia State Police and Prince William County Police Department conducted undercover operations at the motel from March 2025 through January 2026, according to the report. Investigators made 12 controlled purchases of fentanyl from co-defendant Margo Waldon Pierce, 51, who distributed approximately 280.69 grams. Prosecutors said Roderick supplied the fentanyl for several of those transactions. The operation ended with a raid at the Red Carpet Inn on Jan. 15, 2026, according to insidenova.com.
Five Defendants Received Prison Sentences
The other defendants received sentences ranging from four to 15 years and 10 months. Kosha Sharma was sentenced on Sept. 17 to 10 years and 10 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and managing a drug-involved premises, according to Potomac Local. Pierce pleaded guilty on May 13 to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and was sentenced on Sept. 10 to four years. Tarun Sharma pleaded guilty on June 3 to the same charges and was sentenced on Oct. 21 to seven years. Together with Smith, those defendants and Roderick make up the five people sentenced in the case.
The case lands amid a broader overdose crisis across the region. Prince William Times reports that authorities seized about 26,200 fentanyl pills in the county in 2025, while the county still reported 24 drug-overdose deaths that year. Statewide, Virginia recorded 16,416 drug-overdose emergency-department visits in 2025, a 10 percent decrease from 2024, according to preliminary data from the Virginia Department of Health. Separately, the United States Sentencing Commission has found that almost 80 percent of victims who overdosed on fentanyl in federal drug-trafficking cases did not know they were taking the drug.
Regional Overdose Data and Naloxone Access
The Virginia Department of Health says its county and city overdose-death map assigns deaths to the locality where the person lived, not necessarily where the death occurred. The Prince William Health District reported 454 opioid use disorder deaths in the Greater Prince William Region from 2018 to 2023. That regional figure does not show a year-by-year trend for Prince William County or establish whether the county's reported 2025 total is final.
Separately, Prince William County Community Services says it provides naloxone nasal spray to Greater Prince William residents through partnerships with state agencies, according to its naloxone information page.
Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia confirmed Smith's 18-year-and-four-month sentence for his role in the conspiracy. The case involved a Baltimore-based trafficker, activity at a Dumfries motel and an investigation conducted by three law-enforcement agencies.
