A Clarksburg man and his California co-conspirator pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday in connection with drug trafficking crimes that brought cocaine from California to his auto repair shop in District Heights, Maryland.
Norville Clarke, 56, of Clarksburg, and Daniel Cruz, 39, of Los Angeles, are both charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
Both men face a mandatory sentence of 10 years to life. Sentencing for Clarke is scheduled for July 24.
According to the guilty plea, in 2023, multiple federal agencies partnered to investigate a drug-trafficking organization transporting and distributing large quantities of cocaine from California to Maryland. The investigation began in March 2023 when a parcel containing approximately two kilograms of cocaine was seized.
During the investigation, officers opened a parcel containing two automobile transmissions that also had 20 one-kilogram bricks secreted in the oil pans of both transmissions that laboratory forensic tests later confirmed were more than 16 kilograms of cocaine, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maryland.
In January 2024, postal inspectors and other investigators identified a freight-shipment container shipped from Los Angeles, destined for Clarke’s auto-repair shop.
Postal inspectors, DEA agents, Maryland State Police officers and other members of law enforcement executed search warrants at Clarke’s District Heights auto-repair shop, his Clarksburg residence and Cruz’s hotel room in Capitol Height.
At the auto-repair shop, law enforcement located an additional 502.4 grams of cocaine and then found two-kilogram bricks of cocaine and $45,730 at Clarke’s residence. Investigators later identified an additional nine historical freight shipments that mirrored the original shipment that contained cocaine that Cruz sent to Clarke’s auto-repair shop utilizing the same freight shipping company, according to the news release.
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