Columbian Thomas, aka Cruddy Murda, was sentenced on Tuesday to more than 13 years in federal prison for his part in a major conspiracy to distribute more than 4,000 grams of fentanyl-laced pills between California and D.C. Thomas pleaded guilty to distributing 400 or more grams of fentanyl in May following his June 2023 arrest.

Public health experts say the overall prevalence of the powerful synthetic opioid likely contributed to the spike in overdose deaths in D.C. and elsewhere. Midyear data on opioid-related overdose deaths in D.C. offered hope of reversing a five-year trend of consecutive increases. More than 2,000 D.C. residents have died since 2018 as a result of opioid overdoses.

According to a court filing by the United States Attorney’s Office for D.C., Thomas first joined the cross-country drug-dealing network when fellow D.C. rapper and co-conspirator Marvin Anthony Bussie, aka Money Marr, introduced him to Hector David Valdez, the conspiracy’s primary defendant, in August 2020.

Valdez, a Los Angeles-based drug trafficker, peddled counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that the DEA tracked to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. He brought Thomas into the enterprise to purchase and transport the drugs from California to sell in the District.

During a visit to L.A. in October 2022, Valdez offered Thomas a rate of $0.75 per pill for six “boats” (meaning 6,000 pills). Thomas told Valdez, “Bra, I always get more [then] six,” according to court documents. The investigation also found that Thomas and Valdez organized the shipment and smuggling of counterfeit pills from L.A. to addresses in Northeast D.C. 

In a post to his Instagram story, which prosecutors used as evidence in the case, Thomas shared a picture of himself with a large stack of cash and a caption, “I ❤️Cali !!!!” Another collection of stories titled “Its nuffin#cali,” features photos and videos of him in and around L.A. One video features a sticker image of Joaquín Guzmán, better known as El Chapo, the former head of the Sinaloa cartel, who is currently serving a life sentence.

Over the course of Thomas’ dealings with Valdez, authorities were already working on uncovering their drug trafficking network as part of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s “Operation Blues Brothers.” The investigation was sparked by the 2021 overdose death of 20-year-old D.C. resident Diamond Lynch.

“On that day, a young woman named Diamond Lynch took a pill—one pill—and died almost immediately,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said during a press conference last year.

In June 2023, authorities obtained and executed arrest warrants for six alleged members of the conspiracy, including Thomas. Law enforcement agents found Thomas in his bedroom with a plastic bag containing 100 counterfeit oxycodone pills and a Glock 21 handgun outfitted with a “giggle switch” that turns the weapon into a fully automatic machine gun.

Since his arrest, Thomas updated his Instagram bio to include the phrase “#FreeDaCruddy” and released a mixtape in Sep. 2023 titled “#FreeTheCruddy.”

Several of his family members, including his grandmother, cousin, and father, as well as the mother of his 1-year-old son, who was born after his arrest, wrote letters to the judge asking for leniency.

“Not being able to be a father to his son is destroying him,” Thomas Sr. wrote to the judge. “I think that is also destroying my grandson. Please show leniency when sentencing him.”
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly handed Thomas a sentence of 160 months—eight months fewer than what the prosecutors requested—followed by five years of supervised release.