Operation Golden Pony: Four Individuals Sentenced

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Kelly Ray Potter Jr., age 42, of McAlester, Oklahoma; Rachel Marie White, age 38, of El Reno, Oklahoma; and Lashea Dannette Harris, age 33, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma were each sentenced for Drug Conspiracy, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 846 and 841. Sisney Ann Large, age 43, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was sentenced for Distribution of Methamphetamine, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 841. Potter was sentenced on March 7, 2018, to 262 months in prison and 5 years of supervised release. White was sentenced on April 12, 2018, to 80 months in prison and 4 years of supervised release. Harris was sentenced on May 9, 2018, to 18 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release. Large was sentence on March 15, 2018, to 57 months in prison and 5 years of supervised release.

These charges arose from a joint investigation entitled “Golden Pony” coordinated by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) of the Eastern District of Oklahoma.  The agencies involved in the investigation were the Bureau of Indian Affairs (“BIA”), the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), and several agencies that are members of the DEA Task Force including the Tulsa (“TPD”) and Broken Arrow (“BAPD”) Police Departments, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (“OHP”), the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (“OBN”) and the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office (“TCSO”). 

The Superseding Indictment, filed on September 13, 2017, alleged that beginning in or about July 2016 and continuing until on or about November 29, 2016, within the Eastern District of Oklahoma and elsewhere, defendants Potter, White, and Harris, knowingly and intentionally combined, conspired, confederated and agreed together, and with others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute 50 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine, a Schedule II controlled substance, and to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of heroin, a Schedule I controlled substance, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846. 

The Superseding Indictment further alleged that on or about August 30, 2016, within the Eastern District of Oklahoma, defendant Large knowingly and intentionally distributed 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, a Schedule II controlled substance. 

“Disrupting and dismantling criminal organizations is a critical component of public safety. Criminal drug organizations are inherently dangerous to all people, not just those that participate in the business of dealing drugs. Law enforcement operations like this require thousands of hours from dedicated, professional, thorough law enforcement officers. This investigation and resulting prosecution would not have been successful without the cooperative efforts of agents from the DEA, BIA, TPD, BAPD, OHP, OBN, and TCSO, and members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” said U.S. Attorney Brian J. Kuester. “When agencies from federal, tribal, state, and local jurisdictions work together as they did here, so much more can be accomplished for the communities that we serve than can be accomplished alone. This was teamwork at its finest.” 

OCDETF is an initiative led and coordinated by the Office of the United States Attorney. The OCDETF Program’s mission is to disrupt and dismantle every component of the most significant transnational, national, and regional criminal organizations engaged in drug trafficking and money laundering in the United States. To accomplish this mission, it is essential to investigate and prosecute individuals who organize, direct, finance, or are otherwise engaged in facilitating high-level illegal drug trafficking, drug-related violence, and related enterprises, including large-scale money laundering organizations. 

The Honorable Ronald A. White, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, in Muskogee, presided over each of the sentencing hearings. The defendants will remain in custody pending transportation to the designated federal facility at which the non-parolable sentences will be served.

Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Wilson represented the United States.