St. Louis Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Fentanyl and Drug-Related Murder

 ST. LOUIS, MO – Armond Calvin, of St. Louis City, pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and one count of using a firearm to commit murder in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.  Calvin, 22, appeared before United States District Judge Catherine D. Perry.

According to the plea agreement, Calvin was a member of a violent drug trafficking organization that distributed fentanyl and other illegal drugs to drug customers in the St. Louis Metropolitan area.  Members of the organization maintained various cellular telephones, which drug customers would call to obtain fentanyl. Calvin and other members of the conspiracy shared the phones, taking turns distributing fentanyl to customers who called the phone numbers.

On December 3, 2016, Calvin and other gang members learned a prospective customer had purchased fentanyl from a rival drug dealer, instead of from Calvin’s drug trafficking organization.  Calvin and other members of his gang then tracked the rival dealer’s vehicle to the area of the Meramec Market, near the intersection of Oregon Avenue and Meramec Street in the City of St. Louis.  At that location, Calvin, armed with a Glock 27, .40 caliber firearm fitted with a laser sight, leaned out of his own vehicle’s window and opened fire on the rival vehicle, striking and killing the backseat occupant, victim David Leslie Bryant, III.  As Calvin was shooting, a black knit hat fell off Calvin’s head and onto the street.  Later forensic analysis revealed Calvin’s DNA on the hat.  The Glock 27, .40 caliber firearm was recovered several months later following the crash of a vehicle in which Calvin was a passenger, and ballistics analysis confirmed it was the murder weapon.

As part of his guilty plea, Calvin agreed to a recommended sentence of twenty years in prison.

This plea is connection with the on-going U.S. Attorney’s Office Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative and investigation into drug distribution at the Clinton-Peabody public housing complex. The investigation has included the execution of more than 15 federal search warrants resulting in the seizure of numerous firearms and controlled substances and was the subject of an important public forum involving law enforcement, citizens, and residents of the Clinton-Peabody complex held on August 3, 2018, at the Peabody Elementary School.

This case was an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the St. Louis Division of the FBI, the St. Louis Division of the DEA, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the United States Marshals Service, and the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department, with assistance from the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. Assistant United States Attorneys Lisa Yemm and Angie Danis are handling the case for the United States Attorney’s Office.