In fact, local police were so familiar with them they were called by U.S. Marshals last Thursday to aid in the manhunt for them, Roanoke Rapids Narcotics Agent Daniel Hundley said Friday.

Both men have been under investigation by Hundley and his partner, Agent Jamie Hardy. “Both are responsible for a large quantity of drugs in the area. They are definitely associates,” Hundley said.

Kee, a bonafide Blood member, has been an alleged suspect in several shootings over the years, said Hundley, who along with detectives Jeff Davis and Bobby Martin, spent much of last weekend helping locate the men, who along with their suspected girlfriends, one of whom had ties to the area, were found holed up in a Petersburg motel last Sunday.

What led the men to Raleigh, where they allegedly murdered 26-year-old Marcus Rashad Owens, remains unknown, Hundley said. Raleigh police have only said a disagreement between the men escalated to the point of gunshots in a parking lot off South Saunders Street.

“From my experience from when I was working narcotics, I just know they were key subjects in the narcotics world,” Martin said. “It's just widely known in the area they are known as distributors.”

Hundley said the pair were in and out of the area, traveling anywhere from Rocky Mount to Petersburg, “Selling drugs, that's all they know.”

Kee is allegedly high up in the Bloods, Hundley said, high enough that he would be past any initiation stage.

Both Kee and Nelson have been charged with first-degree murder in the case, while the women, Erica Burnell and Christina Barnes, have been charged with accessory after the fact of murder.