Tavon Valentine Lee, 29, Sentenced for Possession of Firearm After Ditching Cocaine Trafficking Evidence in a Trash Can
Thursday, September 10, 2026
WASHINGTON – Tavon Valentine Lee, 29, of the District of Columbia, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 60 months in prison in connection with his possession of a loaded Glock 23 while participating in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
Lee pleaded guilty on Jan. 30, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali to one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. In addition to the 60-month prison sentence, Judge Ali ordered Lee to serve three years of supervised release.
According to court papers, beginning in the summer of 2024, the FBI launched an investigation into a large-scale cocaine conspiracy spanning the District, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. The investigation revealed that Lee possessed a firearm as he distributed gram quantities of cocaine, which he obtained from co-defendant Marcus Devonta Williams, in the D.C. area. Williams in turn received multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine transported from New York by co-defendant Daryl Smith-Winfree.
On March 24, 2025, law enforcement observed co-defendant Daryl Smith-Winfree meet with co-defendant Marcus Williams in a parking lot in Wilmington, Delaware. After entering and remaining in Smith-Winfree's vehicle for about two minutes, co-defendant Williams left Smith-Winfree's vehicle and reentered his own Ford Raptor holding a brown paper bag. The next day, on March 25, 2025, investigators followed co-defendant Williams to a parking lot in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he met briefly with Lee. Investigators witnessed Lee as he got into co-defendant Williams’ Ford Raptor empty-handed and emerge about two minutes later carrying a brown paper bag. Lee threw the bag into a trash can before driving off alone in a Mercedes SUV.
Investigators recovered the discarded bag. Inside, they found packaging materials consistent with kilogram-quantity distribution, cocaine residue on cutting instruments, and a parking receipt matching the license plate of the Williams’s Ford Raptor.
Montgomery County police officers stopped Lee’s Mercedes a short time later. A search of the vehicle turned up about 257 grams of cocaine, roughly 65 pills suspected to be counterfeit oxycodone, and a loaded Glock 23 handgun with an extended 15-round magazine.
Co-defendant Smith-Winfree pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and was sentenced to 96 months in prison. Co-defendant Williams pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and was sentenced to 70 months in prison.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington Field Office, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Washington Division Office, the Montgomery County Police Department, Howard County Police Department, and the Arlington County Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael L. Barclay, Daniel Seidel, and Anthony Scarpelli prosecuted this matter.