Winston McGhee, 36, was arrested Wednesday for his alleged role as a supplier to a drug operation run by two brothers that had stash houses in Dorchester and Mattapan and wholesaled both cocaine and crack to smaller dealers across the city.

Agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, assisted by Boston Police drug-unit officers, arrested McGhee at his home at 420 Washington St. following a 20-month investigation into the alleged operations of brothers Kenji and Matthew Drayton.

McGhee allegedly supplied cocaine to Kenji Drayton, who was charged with selling drugs out of his home on Moreland Street in Roxbury and who often supplied his brother, working out of Brighton, from a stash house DEA says they shared on Larchmont Street in Dorchester. One associate of Kenju Drayton also allegedly ran a stash house on Woodhaven Stret in Mattapan.

In addition to McGhee and the Drayton brothers, 21 other people were charged in federal complaints released Wednesday with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and cocaine base.

According to an affidavit by a DEA agent on the case, on April 4, Kenji Drayton and McGhee discussed the problems Drayton was having because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which was affecting supplies in the US as border closures made it harder to get cocaine into the country. McGhee allegedly still had some cocaine - a kilogram - he could sell Drayton, whose regular supplier had himself come up empty.

According to an affidavit by a DEA agent on the case, McGhee could be a helpful supplier. He was captured on phone calls with one customer giving impromptu "cooking" lessons when the customer complained the cocaine he'd bought was no good, because his own "cooking" was failing to turn it into crack.

After two phone calls with the man, McGhee even offered to come over and "cook" the cocaine for him to show him how it's done.

McGhee was already facing local charges for his alleged involvement in an April 17 shooting, when he was charged in US District Court in Boston on the cocaine charge, according to the DEA affidavit.

Recordings of other ring members and customers also include one in which two men agreed to a drug deal, but then couldn't agree on a location. After rejecting pizza places in Dorchester and Mattapan, they agreed to meet on the the stretch of Morton Street near the Pit Stop barbecue place. But then one realized: "That means you gotta double park, ain’t gonna be no parking over there."