TEXARKANA — U.S. attorneys unsealed a second federal indictment Wednesday and expected to file more charges within coming weeks as part of a multi-agency investigation into a drug ring centered in Texarkana.
The newest indictment filed brings the total number of people facing federal charges to 67. In all, 74 people face a mix of federal and state charges in an investigation that authorities said Wednesday was based on drug purchases from undercover officers over the past year.
As of Wednesday, 45 people were in custody - 42 arrested on federal charges and three arrested on state charges, FBI spokesman Steve Frazier said.
Local, state and federal law enforcement officials are searching for 29 others wanted in the investigation named Operation State Line Sweep.
While police searched for those at large, 18 defendants accused of conspiring to traffic crack cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana in Texarkana appeared in federal court.
Sixteen men and one woman pleaded innocent before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry A. Bryant in a courtroom at the Miller County jail to charges laid out in a 190-count indictment filed Sept. 14 and unsealed Tuesday.
In addition, Cordney Morgan, who was charged in Wednesday’s indictment,pleaded innocent to charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, use and carrying of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The full indictment was unavailable.
Sixteen people waived their rights to bond hearings and were placed in the custody of U.S. Marshals. Each reserved the right to request a hearing at a later date.
Two other defendants were released from custody. No additional arraignments were scheduled for today.
Carlton Jones, prosecuting attorney for the southern portion of the 8th Judicial District, said Wednesday that state charges would likely not be filed for at least a week.
Jones said he could not discuss the specific state charges until all of the warrants were served.
More than a third of the federal charges involved drug sales within 1,000 feet of schools, public housing projects and a public playground.
Two of those charged in the indictments lived in Texarkana housing projects, said Dub Wingfield, executive director of the Texarkana Public Housing Authority.
Wingfield said his staff is trained to recognize drugs and potential drug deals on or near the authority’s housing projects and regularly reports suspicious behavior to police.
Anyone convicted of drug offenses is evicted, he said, as part of the authority’s “one strike” policy, which falls under a federal program aimed at eliminating drugs from public housing.
In addition, over the past few years, the authority has installed cul-de-sacs and wrought-iron fencing to control traffic through the neighborhoods to help curb drug activity.
“I don’t think your cultural or economic status excludes you from the possibility of drugs in your neighborhood,” Wingfield said. “The arrests that they’ve made have been all over Texarkana. I live in a pretty good neighborhood, and they made an arrest near where I live.”
Also, the authority pays a portion of the salaries of three police officers assigned to patrol the housing projects.
“Yesterday is not going to erase the problem - it’s going to be back,” Wingfield said Wednesday of the sweep. “It’s still here in the neighborhoods around our facilities. Yesterday is definitely going to slow it down for a while, but it’s not gone.”
Texarkana police said patrols have been temporarily increased in the areas where drugs were sold during the investigation, including at the housing projects.
Cutting down on drug activity in neighborhoods around the housing projects was part of the reason local agencies partnered with federal authorities, police Capt. Mark Lewis said.
“The key from our perspective to working with the FBI and federal authorities was focused on making a significant impact in the community in regards to prosecution and adjudication. The sentencing guidelines are more stringent in federal court,” he said.
Investigators said Wednesday that many of those arrested in the drug sweep were repeat offenders in state court who were successfully prosecuted but were later released and returned to committing the same crimes.
An influx of federal money enabled local law enforcement officials to make larger undercover drug purchases and reach higher up in the drug trafficking ring, Lewis said.
Texarkana police Sgt. Nick Elrod, a supervisor in the Bi-State Narcotics Task Force,said the investigation netted much larger amounts of various drugs - including marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine - than were listed in the indictment.
“That was just a drop in the bucket of what made it to the streets,” he said. “Those were just the amounts of drugs sold to officers. We were able to get to some of the people who were supplying those drugs, and we were able to cut them off for now. But just because we’re arresting people doesn’t mean it’s over.”
Conner Eldridge, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, said the Texarkana investigation, as well as one announced earlier this month in El Dorado, were unlike the large-scale drug-trafficking and police-corruption arrests last week in Helena-West Helena.
“This is a different thing in that every local law enforcement agency was involved from the beginning,” and the FBI and Arkansas State Police offered to assist, he said.
“It’s the FBI being willing to listen and offer their help and know what the local chiefs and sheriffs are saying is going on in their communities,” Eldridge said.
Eldridge declined to comment on whether more federal indictments will be unsealed after all of the 74 are apprehended.
The newest indictment against Morgan was unsealed during the initial court appearances Wednesday.
Just before 9 a.m., attorneys from across the state filed into the courtroom, where they were later appointed to represent defendants.
Those named in the indictment entered the courtroom in groups of four or five at a time - all wearing tan or navy-blue jail jumpsuits and shackles.
Most sat quietly on the front row, waiting to be called in pairs before Bryant, who walked them through their initial appearances. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matt Quinn and Kyle Waters read the charges leveled against each defendant.
After each group, the next defendants spread out in the courtroom, huddling and whispering with their attorneys, most of whom they were meeting for the first time.
During one court recess, four of the men charged in the indictment were laughing and chatting as defendant Channing Pennington walked past with a small smile. He winked at one of the younger men, quieting the group.
Pennington, 23, then stood before the judge alongside Antonio Richard, 22, and entered his plea before being led back to a cell.
Miller County sheriff ’s deputies consolidated prisoners in the jail to accommodate all of the new arrivals.
“The move didn’t overcrowd any areas of the jail. It just took those areas to full capacity to free up an entire pod for the influx of people,” Chief Deputy Duke Schofield said.
“We’re prepared to house them as long as it takes to prosecute.”
Pending bond hearings, those arrested could remain in jail at least until the preliminary trial date of Dec. 19.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/20/2011