HOLY SH*T: Rayful Edmond Has Been Released From Prison

The city’s notorious drug kingpin-turned-informant has found freedom. From NBC:

A D.C. cocaine kingpin who’s been in prison for more than 35 years has been released.

Rayful Edmond, 59, got out Wednesday and is in a Nashville halfway house, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said.

The notorious gangster’s release from prison came as a bit of a surprise. As recently as last week, a judge in Pennsylvania denied Edmond’s request for a compassionate release, and two weeks ago, D.C. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan denied a request for another sentence reduction.

Edmond was convicted in 1990 of running a cocaine ring that racked up millions of dollars in sales and sent the murder rate so high the District was dubbed the “murder capital” of the nation. The crack epidemic had the District in a vice grip for years with countless murders linked to it.

Edmond was sentenced to life in prison.