An indictment handed up last week by a federal grand jury in Little Rock charges 22 people with participating in a conspiracy to distribute marijuana in the Eastern District of Arkansas between January 2005 and Thursday.
The indictment, unsealed Tuesday, alleges that some of the accused obtained the marijuana from people who grew it in other states, including California and Oregon, and then delivered it by mail or other means for redistribution in Arkansas.
Four of those charged are accused of being responsible for the distribution of thousands of pounds of the drug.
The indictment doesn't say where in the Eastern District of Arkansas, which includes 41 counties, the investigation was centered.
The main defendants are identified as Stephen Lance "Pudge" Baker, Christy Diane Baker, Ryan Theodore Schmidt and Thomas "Tommy" McCaslin, whose ages and hometowns were not available Tuesday. Each of them are accused of helping distribute thousands of pounds of marijuana after obtaining it from people in other states, including Joe Allen Wixson of Eureka, Calif; Randall Bell and Jean Bell of McArthur, Calif.; and Michael Darran Shea of O'Brien, Ore.
The indictment includes a demand that the Bells turn over their home and property in Northern California, as well as any proceeds resulting from the sale of marijuana, to the government in the event they are convicted.
Metro on 12/17/2014