FORT SMITH -- Most of the 19 people federal authorities arrested this fall when they dismantled a methamphetamine distribution ring have pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
Federal court records show 13 defendants have entered guilty pleas to charges in two of three indictments issued in October.
The indictments concluded a yearlong investigation into methamphetamine trafficking in Boone, Baxter, Searcy, Newton, Benton and Washington counties in Arkansas and in Missouri and Oklahoma. Several federal, state and local law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
The indictments were filed in the Western District of Arkansas' Harrison Division, but the guilty pleas were taken in Fort Smith this week before U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III.
Among those pleading guilty was Patricia Gayle Lewis-Zubkin, 62, of St. Joe, who is believed to have been at the top of the distribution chain.
Lewis-Zubkin pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. She also was charged with three counts of distribution of 50 grams or more of the drugs, but the government has agreed to dismiss them at sentencing.
She remained in federal custody after the hearing Thursday. Court records show Lewis-Zubkin could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and fined up to $1 million. She is expected to be sentenced in six to eight weeks.
In her plea agreement with the government, Lewis-Zubkin admitted that if she went to trial, the government could prove she distributed between 3.3 pounds and 9.9 pounds of the drug.
In the plea agreement, Lewis-Zubkin said her son, Jason Lee Lewis, 40, of St. Joseph, Mo., was stopped in Mayes County, Okla., on Feb. 3 and found to have more than 6 pounds of methamphetamine in his car. He told authorities most of it was to be delivered to his mother.
The next day, FBI agents questioned Lewis-Zubkin, according to the plea agreement. She admitted receiving methamphetamine from a supplier in Oklahoma, to whom she paid $8,000 a pound. She said she traveled to Tulsa in the summer of 2015 and bought 3 pounds from her supplier for $24,000. Money for the purchase came from previous drug sales, she said.
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In plea agreements from others charged in the cases, the people said they would go to Lewis-Zubkin for methamphetamine that they would then sell.
After her arrest Oct. 27, Lewis-Zubkin told authorities she was supplied methamphetamine by Juan Delacruz Albarran, paying $2,000 a pound, according to the plea agreement.
Albarran was charged in the third indictment in the investigation along with two other men, Juan Ramirez Vargas and Joseph Macormick Elder. Court records show the three are scheduled to go on trial in March.
Pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine were James Montgomery Suggs, age unavailable, James Wesley Phillips, 26, Lorene Latham Phillips, age unavailable, Phillip Eugene Greenhaw, 44, Jackie Bruce Veach, 61, Sarah Jane Veach, age unavailable, all of Harrison; Megan Diane Hersh, 30, of Diamond City; and Lewis.
Pleading guilty to two counts each of using a cellphone for methamphetamine distribution were Edward Hugh Wade Jr., 54, of Pine Bluff; Jessie Paul Farmer, age unavailable, of Harrison; Dammon Wayne Charlton, 34, of Harrison; and Carl Wayne Charlton, 56, of Harrison.
A change-of-plea hearing has been scheduled for Thursday in federal court in Fort Smith for Larissa Anne Pitts. Court records show she is charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and using a cellphone for methamphetamine distribution.
Gerald Paul Stewart is scheduled to go on trial Wednesday in federal court in Fort Smith on charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and using a cellphone for methamphetamine distribution. Mendy Lynn Barron is to go to trial on the same charges Feb. 27, according to court records.
State Desk on 12/31/2016