Milton Johnson spent 1,188 days on the run from federal authorities until his capture in January.
At the time, Johnson told a federal agent he was glad it was over.
On Tuesday, nearly four years after his indictment on federal drug charges, the 42-year-old told a federal judge that allegations that caused him to flee were in fact true. He had provided powder and crack cocaine to dealers for resale in Helena-West Helena.
Johnson, who is known as "Bump," made the admissions during a hearing before U.S. District Judge James Moody at the federal courthouse in Little Rock as Johnson pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
According to his plea agreement, Johnson took responsibility for providing between a pound and 4.4 pounds of cocaine to Sedrick Trice and Leon Edwards.
Both Trice and Edwards have since been sentenced to long prison terms for heading up a drug-trafficking conspiracy that poured hundreds of pounds of illegal drugs into struggling communities in the Arkansas Delta.
The drug-trafficking conspiracy was the target of a yearslong FBI investigation known as Operation Delta Blues.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 11, 2011, hundreds of federal agents swarmed into the small towns of Marianna and Helena-West Helena. Over the next few days, they arrested 70 people, including five law enforcement officers charged with public corruption.
But federal agents weren't able to track down Johnson.
Over the next three years, the rest of the defendants' cases worked their way through the courts. Some even served their prison sentences and were released.
All the while, Johnson remained elusive, even after he was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
Then, on Jan. 10, an informant led a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force to where Johnson was hiding in eastern Shelby County, Tenn.
On Tuesday, Johnson appeared with his attorney, Blake Hendrix, and admitted that more than four years ago, in March and April of 2011, he provided cocaine to Trice and Edwards and discussed those transactions over a phone that was tapped by federal agents.
According to excerpts of the conversations in his plea agreement, Johnson called Trice on March 30, 2011.
Trice said he wanted a "nine-piece chicken dinner," coded language that federal prosecutors say referred to 9 ounces of cocaine.
"What's the ticket on that?," Trice asked Johnson.
"Seven eight," Johnson replied, meaning $7,800.
Johnson participated in a similar call with Edwards on April 2, 2011, in which he again discussed another nine-piece chicken dinner and other cocaine orders that he supplied.
At the time, the plea agreement signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Peters notes, Johnson knew that Trice regularly carried firearms in connection with his drug trafficking and that the drugs were intended for distribution in Helena-West Helena, a town that has struggled with crime, poverty and depopulation.
In exchange for Johnson's plea, prosecutors agreed to drop two additional felony charges against him involving the use of a phone in furtherance of a drug crime.
Johnson will be sentenced at a hearing that hadn't been scheduled as of Tuesday. He faces a federal prison sentence of five to 40 years.
Metro on 09/30/2015