District Couple Arrested and Charged in Homeland Security Task Force Takedown for Trafficking Fentanyl and Crack Cocaine

WASHINGTON -- Katie Shameka Williams, 33, and Kenneth Darnell Smith Jr., 32, both of the District of Columbia, were arrested yesterday after being charged in an indictment in connection with running an alleged fentanyl trafficking operation from their apartment in the District's Congress Heights neighborhood, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

"These charges reflect this office's aggressive commitment to dismantling violent drug networks, removing dangerous traffickers from our streets, and keeping our communities safe," said U.S. Attorney Pirro. "We will no longer tolerate lawlessness in our nation's capital, and this takedown builds on the more than 3,200 drug-related arrests made as part of President Trump's federal surge to make Washington D.C., safe and beautiful."

The indictment charges Williams and Smith with conspiracy to distribute forty grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl and a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine base or crack cocaine.

Both defendants are being held at the D.C. Correctional Facility and have made their first appearance before a magistrate judge.

According to filed documents, the FBI Washington Field Office Safe Streets Task Force launched an investigation in March 2026 into an alleged narcotics distribution operation based on the 1600 block of Savannah Street SE.

It is alleged that over several months in 2026, law enforcement documented at least nine instances of crack cocaine and fentanyl being distributed from that location. In total, those instances involved more than 40 grams of fentanyl and distribution amounts of crack cocaine.

On Aug. 18, 2026, law enforcement executed a federal search warrant at the apartment building and arrested Williams and Smith. During the search, three children were present in the apartment.

Inside the residence, agents recovered substantial quantities of suspected controlled substances, including numerous separately packaged quantities of suspected fentanyl (in pill and powdered form) with an approximate gross weight of 322 grams; a rifle and three loaded handguns; a drum magazine and multiple additional firearm magazines; ammunition; and $1,931 in cash.

Photo of evidence seized from the Savannah Street SE apartment.

Photo of the bag of seized suspected fentanyl pills.

This case is being investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office and the Metropolitan Police Department and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia's Violent Crime and Narcotics Trafficking Section.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Washington D.C. comprises agents and officers from numerous federal agencies with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia

The charges contained in an indictment are merely allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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