DALLAS (KRLD) - The two lead defendants at the center of the federal investigation into drug-dealing at the Han Gil Hotel in northwest Dallas have been sentenced to federal prison. 44-year-old Eric Dewayne Freeman and 40-year-old Kendrick Lamel Washington both plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin and to possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Both men were sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors say, Freeman, known as "Stuff", paid the owner of the Han Gil Hotel an extra fee to allow drug dealers and drug users to occupy the hotel. Dealers used the property to sell heroin, methamphetamine and crack cocaine. People also used drugs in hotel rooms. Several overdose deaths were linked to the property. Prosecutors say Freeman and others would move the bodies of people who overdosed at the hotel to other locations.
Prosecutors say Washington, known as "Kiki", was Freeman's enforcer. They say he threatened or harmed people to collect money, including one incident where he burned a woman with a butane torch. Prosecutors say Freeman used his cell phone to record video of that incident and would show it to other people at the hotel.
The owner of the hotel plead "guilty" to maintaining a drug-involved premise and agreed to forfeit the property. The hotel had been shut down by a federal judge in March.
"In the seven months since the feds shuttered the Han Gil, defendants have confirmed what we already knew from our investigation - that the hotel was a haven for drug dealers, human traffickers, and violent criminals," said U.S. Attorney Nealy Cox. "Two of the Han Gil's most notorious dealers will spend decades behind bars, where they can no longer peddle the substances that have already shattered so many lives."
