Central Arkansas drug trafficking ring dismantled; 15 in custody

DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Justin King said a federal drug investigation known as Operation Mad Hatter dismantled a Central Arkansas drug trafficking organization
DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Justin King said a federal drug investigation known as Operation Mad Hatter dismantled a Central Arkansas drug trafficking organization

Fifteen people involved in a drug operation are now in custody as part of a federal drug investigation named Operation Mad Hatter.

The investigation, run by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, has resulted in the arrest of several drug traffickers and the seizure of 17 kilograms of methamphetamine, 4 kilograms of cocaine, 249 grams of crack cocaine, over 1 kilogram of heroin, over 200 diverted prescription pills, over $107,000 in assets and numerous firearms, officials said.

“Much of that heroine contains fentanyl,” DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Justin King said at a news conference held at the U.S. attorney’s office.

Five people were arrested Monday morning after the unsealing of an indictment of 19 individuals who were charged by a federal grand jury on Aug. 7, 2019. Officials said 10 people had already been arrested throughout the investigation and law enforcement has made contact with the remaining four defendants, completing this phase of the operation. The operation was part of an ongoing DEA Domestic Cartel Initiative investigation.

“The investigation began in 2018 and the first arrests were made in February of 2019,” said Cody Hiland, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Chico Jahoney Russell, aka Supreme, and Terrance Deandre Jackson were named as the heads of the central Arkansas drug organization, he said.

“For what they ran here in Arkansas they were the ones in charge here, but they were getting their drugs from bigger organizations outside of the state and eventually to cartels in Mexico that are supply these drugs,” King said.

The violent drug trafficking operation was mainly located in Little Rock and Pine Bluff, but the group was making attempts to expand beyond central Arkansas, DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Justin King said.

“This organization had a propensity for violence and more then one time we had to intervene in something bad that was about to happen and we did that through a cooperative effort," he said. "That means phone calls in the middle of the night to police departments, waking people up and getting people out to stop some things from happening. At least three times we had to do that through this investigation. That is how violent they were.”

The nameless drug trafficking organization was also well organized, he said.

“I feel confident, with the people we arrested, that this cell has been dismantled,” King said.

Operation Mad Hatter was a joint investigation between the DEA Little Rock District Office, United States Postal Inspection Service, Pine Bluff Police Department, Jefferson County sheriff’s office, Arkansas State Police, Arkansas Community Corrections, Pulaski County sheriff’s office, Benton Police Department, Little Rock Police Department and the Arkansas National Guard Counterdrug Program.

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