A house known as “The Yellow House” in Richmond’s Union Hill neighborhood was forfeited today shutting down a source of drug trafficking and other crimes dating back to 2008.
Neighborhood residents had begged local officials for help citing open prostitution, illicit drug use, public indecency, public urination and defecation, violent fights, drug overdoses, theft and more.
The property, at 2221 Venable Street, was the site of four drug trafficking-related search warrants executed by the Richmond Police Department, one in 2010 and three in 2022.
Police and EMS also responded to two drug overdose deaths at the property, one in 2016 and another in 2020.
According to court documents filed in federal court, the house had been used by its occupants for over a decade both to sell and use a wide variety of drugs, including fentanyl, heroin, crack and powder cocaine. Occupants had also sold a mixture of fentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl and the animal tranquilizer drug xylazine out of the house, a combination commonly referred to as “tranq” or “the zombie drug.”
“The Yellow House was more than a blight on this neighborhood,” said Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “For years, it was a haven for criminal activity, endangering the safety and wellbeing of local residents. I am proud that we were able to use federal tools to help RPD address this quality of life issue for Union Hill.”
The Richmond Chief of Police said he is thankful to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and other federal law enforcement agencies for working with RPD to address the longstanding issue.
“There are times in public safety when law enforcement cannot arrest a problem away,” said Rick Edwards, Richmond Police Chief. “Investigations and charges to individuals, even across several years of enforcement, did not solve this problem.”
The United States began a civil forfeiture action against this drug-involved premises by publicly filing a civil forfeiture complaint in U.S. District Court.
The government then sent notice of the forfeiture action to every person who appeared to have a potential property interest in the house, in addition to giving notice more broadly through online publication. This gave potential claimants an opportunity to contest the forfeiture action in court. Since no claimant came forward to contest the forfeiture action, the United States obtained a default forfeiture judgment.
The house will now be sold by the United States Marshals Service which will remove it from the possession of the occupants who were using it as a base of operations for drug sales.
The matter was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Janet Jin Ah Lee and Kevin Hudson.
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Crystal Graham
