ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The operator of the Red Carpet Inn in Dumfries was sentenced today to 10 years and 10 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and managing a drug involved premises after she turned the hotel’s third floor into a protected marketplace for narcotics distribution and commercial sex and profited from it.
According to court documents, Kosha Sharma, 53, and her husband and co-defendant Tarun Sharma, 55, operated the Red Carpet Inn from May 2023 until their arrests in January 2026. The couple, who lived in a manager’s apartment within the motel, were regularly present on the premises. Under their management, the Red Carpet Inn was known in the area as a place where narcotics and commercial sex could be purchased.
Rather than removing guests engaged in criminal activity, Sharma and her husband channeled the illegal activity to the third floor and restricted who could access that floor, shielding the illegal activity from the view of law enforcement and the public.
Sharma profited directly from the arrangement. She and her husband charged more for third-floor rooms than for rooms on the first and second floors, and third-floor patrons understood the premium to be a fee for being permitted to conduct narcotics transactions and commercial sexual encounters there. Sharma personally collected payment door to door on the third floor each morning, at times pounding on doors and demanding money. Sharma knew that narcotics, including fentanyl, were regularly used on the third floor, and knew that many third-floor guests were addicted to fentanyl. On multiple occasions during the conspiracy, guests overdosed at the hotel. At least two of those overdoses in 2025 were fatal, and Sharma found both victims’ bodies in third-floor rooms.
Between March 2025 and January 2026, the FBI and the Prince William County Police Department conducted a series of undercover operations at the hotel, including at least fourteen apparent prostitution encounters in third-floor rooms and sixteen controlled purchases. Twelve of the controlled purchases involved fentanyl that was distributed by co-defendant Margo Waldon Pierce, aka Marko, 51, who distributed approximately 280.69 grams of fentanyl to undercover officers. Waldon pled guilty on May 13 to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and was sentenced on Sept. 10 to four years in prison.
Tarun pled guilty on June 3 to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and managing a drug involved premises. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 6 and faces up to 40 years in prison.
Theophani K. Stamos, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Jeffrey L. Tyler, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Criminal Division; and Col. Peter Newsham, Chief of Prince William County Police, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan Braun and Catherine Rosenberg prosecuted the case.
Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:26-cr-30.