Federal prosecutors say the last remaining member of the violent “21st and Vietnam” crew was sentenced to 101 months in prison on Friday, bringing some respite to a long-troubled Northeast D.C. neighborhood.
Van Robinson, 44, also known as “Boogie,” was the twelfth and last defendant sentenced in the vast federal prosecution. Robinson will serve three years of supervised release after completing his jail sentence, bringing an end to what officials describe as a years-long effort to destroy the neighborhood’s entrenched open-air drug market.
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According to the Tampa Free Press, Robinson pled guilty in March to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and cocaine, as well as possessing a handgun for narcotics trafficking purposes. “With Robinson’s sentencing today, the 21st and Vietnam crew has definitively been put out of business,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro stated in a release, according to the site.
How the crew ran its open-air market
According to court records and federal investigators, the crew took over an apartment building in the 1900 block of I Street NE and used it as a base of operations. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, units inside were used to process, package, and hide drugs, while customers met with dealers outside the front of the building and in a back parking lot.
Assistant United States Attorneys Andrea Duvall and Solomon Eppel prosecuted the investigation, which included the DEA, the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and the Metropolitan Police Department. Authorities claim that the concerted federal-local effort was intended to shut down not just individual dealers, but the entire business that had staked out territory near 21st Street and Maryland Avenue NE.
Violent incidents and raids
According to court records and reports, investigators tied the crew to a series of shootings that alarmed neighbors, including a March 2024 incident in which a masked gunman opened fire on a bystander and an April drive-by that injured four people.
In May 2024, authorities executed a search warrant at Robinson’s residence and discovered a loaded Glock 27, around 14 grams of probable fentanyl, and drug-packaging supplies, according to the Tampa Free Press.
Sentences that followed
Robinson’s case concluded a string of convictions that had already sent other crew members to federal prison for extended periods. In its releases, the US Attorney’s Office described earlier sentencing and the violence associated with the conspiracy, highlighting that the investigation disrupted an organized open-air drug market in Northeast D.C.
Prosecutors and local officials say the punishment marks the end of a long-running investigation that used undercover buys, surveillance, and coordinated search warrants to target a key fentanyl and cocaine center near 21st Street and Maryland Avenue NE. With Robinson now headed to federal prison, authorities said they will maintain a careful check on the passageway to ensure that a new group does not try to take over the old turf.
