Two Cabot Residents Indicted On Federal Drug Charges

Little Rock - Christopher R. Thyer, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced that Mark Lyle Dodson, age 53, and Mary Olszak, age 52, both of Cabot, Arkansas, were indicted today by a federal grand jury. The nine-count indictment charges Dodson and Olszak with one count of conspiring to distribute five grams or more of methamphetamine, also known as “ice”. Dodson faces three additional counts of assault with a deadly weapon for firing at officers aiding federal agents and three related counts of possession of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. Olszak was indicted on two additional counts of distributing methamphetamine.

The weapons charges against Dodson stem from the shooting that occurred during execution of a search warrant in Cabot on November 22, 2013. According to the indictment, Dobson fired a 16-gauge shotgun at three members of the Jacksonville Police Special Response Team, who were assisting Special Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

If convicted, the methamphetamine conspiracy exposes the defendants to between five and forty years’ imprisonment, and methamphetamine distribution counts subject Olszak to up to twenty years’ imprisonment. For his part, Dodson also faces twenty years’ imprisonment on each of the three counts of assault on an officer assisting federal agents. Related counts charging Dodson with possession of a firearm in connection with a crime of violence trigger mandatory imposition of a consecutive sentence of ten years’ to life imprisonment on the first count, and consecutive sentences of twenty-five years’ to life imprisonment on any additional count(s).

The Drug Enforcement Administration, Little Rock Field Office; Jacksonville Police Department; and Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office are investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Alexander D. Morgan is prosecuting the case for the United States.

The charges set forth in an Indictment are merely allegations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.