BALTIMORE- A U.S. District Court judge on Friday sentenced a 49-year-old Berlin man to seven years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.
According to Marcus Pitts’s guilty plea, in September 2018, members of the Worcester County Criminal Enforcement Team were investigating him for suspected drug distribution. While conducting surveillance at Pitts’s home, investigators saw a suspected drug user go inside, come out a short time later, and then drive away. Investigators conducted a traffic stop of the individual and recovered a glass smoking pipe and a small amount of cocaine, which the person acknowledged he had just purchased from Pitts.
On Sept. 14, 2018, members of the WCCET executed a search warrant at Pitts’s home, where they recovered approximately 396 grams of crack cocaine, baking soda, a glass Pyrex dish, plastic baggies, an empty digital scale box, three cell phones, and $1,472 in cash. An additional cell phone was recovered from Pitts outside the home. A subsequent search warrant of the cell phones revealed numerous text messages indicating that Pitts was involved in trafficking crack cocaine.
Pitts was released from state custody on bail on Sept. 24, 2018. He was arrested on Jan. 2, 2019 on a federal arrest warrant. Authorities said that at the time of his arrest, Pitts was in possession of a bag of crack cocaine, which he tried to throw away as police approached. Investigators also recovered a cell phone from Pitts’s vehicle. The cell phone was searched and was found to contain numerous text messages indicating that Pitts continued to distribute crack cocaine while he was released from state custody on bail, investigators said.