Baltimore Gang Member Faces Up To 36 Years For Pleading Guilty To Two Murders, Drug Distribution Charges
GREENBELT, Md. (WJZ) -- A 24-year-old member of a Baltimore gang pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Friday to participating in a racketeering conspiracy that included two homicides, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Erek Barron's office.
Bobby Cannon was a member of the NFL Criminal Enterprise. NFL stands for Normandy, Franklin and Loudon, which are streets that run through Edmonson Village; members have familial or social ties to the neighborhood, according to the statement.
Cannon admitted to participating in illegal activities, including murder, narcotics trafficking and smuggling, illegal firearms possession, bribery, and witness intimidation and retaliation, with other NFL Criminal Enterprise members when he was a gang member from at least 2016 through March 2020, according to the statement. He admitted to committing two murders, an attempted murder and distributing large quantities of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine, according to the statement.
In 2018, another gang member recruited Cannon to murder a man who was believed to be a federal witness cooperating with law enforcement regarding an investigation into NFL members. On June 16, 2018, Cannon walked up to a porch where the man and his girlfriend were sitting and shot both several times, killed them, according to the statement. He collected payment from the gang for the murders.
Later that year, another gang member recruited Cannon to kill someone, and Cannon planned it for several weeks after researching his victim. On Jan. 4, 2019, he drove to the halfway house where the victim was staying and waited for several hours. He shot the victim several times in the arm, back, neck and buttocks, according to the statement. The victim suffered life-threatening injuries but survived.
Cannon abandoned the car he borrowed from a female gang member, who falsely reported it as stolen.
In April 2019, the FBI arrested several gang members, but not Cannon. On a recorded call following the arrests, Cannon was told to continue distributing drugs for the gang and took over a drug phone members used.
Baltimore Police officers found Cannon unconscious in a parked van on Dec. 28, 2019, saw he had a gun, and recovered more than 98 grams of fentanyl during a search of the van, according to the statement. Cannon admitted he was intending to distribute it.
He admitted in his plea agreement that he and his co-conspirators distributed more than 1 kilogram of heroin, more than 400 grams of fentanyl and more than 280 grams of crack cocaine.
Cannon faces from 29 years to 36 years in federal prison when he is sentenced June 1.
