News Release [print friendly page]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 21, 2009
Contact: Jodie Underwood
Number: (206) 553-5443

Five Arrested for Dealing Oxycontin from Indian Smoke Shops

OCT 21 -- (Seattle) ––F ive people were arrested on federal warrants early this morning in Pierce County and are charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance - Oxycodone. Billy Miranda Flores, 40, of Puyallup, and Bill Celeya Flores, 59, of Tacoma, were arrested early this morning and will appear this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. Search warrants were executed at a number of residences, businesses and on vehicles. Agents seized guns, cash, and hundreds of prescription narcotics.

According to the charging papers filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, the Flores (who are father and son) are operators of the Indian Smoke Shop on Puyallup Tribal Trust Land in Milton, Washington and the Little Red Smoke Shop on Tribal Trust Land in Tacoma, Washington. Three others are also charged in the drug distribution conspiracy: Tiny Bean-Flores, 28, of Tacoma, Danny Lee Sherwood, 25, of Federal Way, and Shelbie Ingham, 18. One additional defendant, Jay Timothy Morehead, 24, remains a fugitive.

According to the criminal complaint, an 18 month investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), revealed that Billy Miranda Flores was selling hundreds of pills of Oxycontin (oxycodone) each day from his business, the Indian Smoke Shop. Flores was also the principal supplier of Oxycontin to other members of the conspiracy who then distributed it to others. Flores and his father, Bill Flores sold the Oxycontin for between $40 and $80 per pill. Over the course of the investigation, Billy Flores and his father, Bill Celeya Flores, sold Oxycontin to undercover agents from their respective smoke shop businesses. Other members of the conspiracy facilitated the drug deals between Flores and undercover agents and confidential sources.

This was an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation, providing supplemental federal funding to the federal and state agencies involved. The lead investigative agencies on the case were DEA and FBI, with assistance from a number of state and local law enforcement agencies.