Operation Hardest Hit targets Portsmouth heroin traffickers

NORFOLK, Va. – Eleven people were arrested across three states Monday morning for their role in a large-scale heroin and fentanyl drug trafficking organization in Portsmouth. This case was investigated by the FBI’s Tidewater Violent Crime Task Force and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Norfolk Field Office, in partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Chesapeake Police Department, the Virginia State Police, and the Portsmouth Gang Suppression Unit.

More than 300 law enforcement agents made the arrests and executed 10 search warrants in Virginia, Georgia and New York. The takedown is the result of a multi-year, multi-jurisdictional and multi-agency Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation designated Operation Hardest Hit.

According to the indictment, law enforcement began investigating Leroy Perdue and his drug trafficking organization (Perdue DTO) in early 2016 following the heroin overdose death of a young resident of Chesapeake. With the participation of nearly two dozen confidential human sources, law enforcement infiltrated the Perdue DTO and made 10 undercover controlled purchases of heroin and fentanyl. On June 22, the investigative team arrested Rhadu Schoolfield in Norfolk with 800 grams of heroin after he returned from a trip to New York.

“Tackling the opioid epidemic is one of our top priorities,” said Dana J. Boente, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Through the combined efforts of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners we will continue to strangle the supply of heroin and fentanyl and bring to justice those who profit from other people’s misery.”

According to the indictment, the Perdue DTO distributed in excess of 100 kilograms of heroin (approximately 250,000 doses) over a 10-year period. Members of the Perdue DTO were responsible for supplying a violent gang based in Portsmouth and continued to sell dangerous narcotics even after learning that their drugs resulted in death. The United States alleges that at least two members of the Perdue DTO have ties to criminal street gangs and that other members possessed firearms and ammunition. Ten of the 12 federal defendants are convicted felons.

“My top priority as attorney general is keeping Virginians and their families safe, which is why my team and I are relentlessly pursuing the heroin and fentanyl traffickers who profit off addiction and endanger the lives of Virginians,” said Mark R. Herring, attorney general of Virginia. “Operation Hardest Hit is another important step in addressing what’s become one of Virginia’s most urgent public safety and public health threats. This operation, along with the work of the Hampton Roads Heroin Working Group, shows what can happen when local, state, and federal partners are committed to working cooperatively and collaboratively. The results speak for themselves and I hope communities around the country will look to this region as an example of what can be accomplished when we come together as a community.”

“This case demonstrates the steadfast commitment of the FBI and our law enforcement partners to protecting the public from destructive enterprises that eat at the heart and soul of our community,” said Martin Culbreth, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Division. “Operation Hardest Hit is an example of a coordinated, intelligence-driven strategy to choke the supply of these dangerous drugs by targeting the high level traffickers and criminal organizations most responsible for terrorizing our neighborhoods and poisoning our community.”

The below individuals were among a dozen named in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury Aug. 9:

After a public outreach campaign Monday, two additional fugitives – Nicholas W. Godwin and Kevin R. Lawrence, both 37 and of Portsmouth – were arrested Tuesday.