A federal judge sentenced a 26-year old Baltimore man to a decade in prison for his role in planning to rob a cocaine stash house and sell the proceeds.
Dawron Kip Mason of Baltimore was directed by U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett Jan. 28 to serve 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Mason is the first of six men, all of Baltimore, to be sentenced for a scheme to grab several kilograms of cocaine in a violent assault on a house where the illegal drug was warehoused.
According to a statement released by the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, Mason was found guilty of masterminding the plot to rob a cocaine stash house, “beat or kill” its’ occupants and divide the proceeds.
Mason hatched the scheme through a person who served as an informant for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and an undercover ATF agent he believed to be “drug courier.”
“On November 14, 2011, the day of the planned robbery, the undercover agent and confidential source spoke with Mason several times, during which Mason reiterated his willingness to commit the robbery,” said the statement. “The undercover agent then met with Mason and his conspirators. Mason arrived at the meeting in his vehicle, which was filled with six others. The details of the robbery were discussed, and Mason and his men were given the opportunity to refuse to participate in the robbery.”
“None of the conspirators, however, left.”
According to prosecutors, Mason’s intentions were to invade the stash house and forcibly overcome the people who secured the drugs right up until law enforcement agents interrupted the plot and, after the defendants attempted to flee, arrested the men.
“Mason attempted to flee by driving a Ford Explorer into a moving police van, through a six foot high chain link fence and a parking lot where they crashed into a bystander’s vehicle, and finally across four lanes of traffic,” said officials in the statement. “Mason’s vehicle became disabled and the conspirators attempted to flee on foot.”
In addition to Mason, police arrested Michael Allen Smith, 20, Douglas McArthur Thomas, 23, Donte Terrell Thornton, 28, Christopher Lee Turpin, 29, and Brandon Sykes, 29. All but Sykes, who was found guilty after a trial, pleaded guilty.
All five of the remaining defendants await sentencing.
