A federal drug trafficking case that stretched from a strip-mall shipping storefront in Fresno, California, to fortified stash houses in Albany has finally closed its books. Dwight A. Singletary II, 44, of Fresno and Troy, pleaded guilty on Tuesday as the 25th and final defendant convicted in the sprawling conspiracy, entering a plea deal that recommends a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison.
Singletary was originally charged under an indictment that carried statutory penalties ranging from 10 years to life, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Enforcement Division marked the milestone this week, and the agency’s own account, posted on X by DEANewYork, framed it as the end of a case that moved more than 15,000 pounds of marijuana from California into the Capital Region and other communities nationwide.
A Storefront Turned Drug Pipeline
Between April 2017 and June 2022, the organization shipped roughly 1,292 packages containing 15,582 pounds of marijuana from a Fresno storefront to New York’s Capital Region alone, per the Justice Department’s account of the case. The operation ran through a commercial shipping business called Fast Pack & Ship, which Singletary helped finance the purchase of in 2018 before ownership shifted in April 2020 to co-defendant McKenzie Merrialice Coles, working under a corporate entity known as M.M.M.C. Management, Inc.
The network used commercial UPS and FedEx services to move product across at least 21 states, listing fake shipper names and sealing boxes with eBay-branded packing tape to slip past security screening, the same DOJ account states. DEA Special Agent in Charge Farhana Islam said in a statement that the group also disguised shipments in dog food containers and luggage while exploiting the nation’s commercial shipping system to move thousands of pounds of marijuana across the country.
Cash, Cashier’s Checks and Fresno Real Estate
Islam said in her statement that the enterprise laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds through cash couriers, financial transactions and real estate, and the case files bear that out. Singletary and Coles funneled drug money into two Fresno homes worth a combined $820,000, buying cashier’s checks with cash profits, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Those purchases included individual houses on West Acacia priced at $430,000 and $390,000…