Operation River Fork Defendant Pleads Guilty to Trafficking Crack Cocaine

 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Woonsocket man, one of eighteen individuals arrested during a ten-month Project Safe Neighborhoods drugs and firearms investigation in Woonsocket, Providence, and Cranston in 2020, that resulted in the recovery of six loaded firearms and more than a kilo of crack cocaine, pleaded guilty today to a charge of distributing crack cocaine.

Bradley Dewalt, 29, admitted to the court that on February 27, 2020, at the direction of another person, already the subject of a Rhode Island FBI Safe Streets Gang Task Force investigation termed “Operation River Fork,” he contacted an individual seeking to arrange for the purchase of crack cocaine. Dewalt and that person met later that day in Bellingham, MA, where Dewalt sold the individual an ounce of crack cocaine for $1,150.

Dewalt, previously convicted on assault, drug trafficking, and firearm charges, and charged in this matter on October 6, 2020, by way of a federal criminal complaint, appeared today before U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy and pleaded guilty to distribution of crack cocaine. He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 17, 2020.

Anthony Medeiros, 30, of  Woonsocket, the person that arranged for the contact between Dewalt and the person seeking to purchase crack cocaine, pleaded guilty in federal court on May 6, 2021, to conspiracy to distribute cocaine base and three counts of distribution of cocaine base. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 27, 2021.

Dewalt's and Medeiros’s guilty pleas are announced by Acting United States Attorney Richard B. Myrus.

The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Stacey P. Veroni.

These cases are being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

The Rhode Island FBI Safe Streets Gang Task Force consists of agents and law enforcement officers from the FBI, United States Marshals Service, Central Falls Police Department, Cranston Police Department, Pawtucket Police Department, Providence Police Department, West Warwick Police Department, Woonsocket Police Department, and Rhode Island State Police.