California Man Convicted of Multi-State Heroin Conspiracy and Money Laundering

BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney’s Office announced today another conviction in connection with a Middle District of Louisiana Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation of a significant multi-state heroin conspiracy involving the distribution and sale of heroin disguised as oxycodone.

On March 9, 2017, LOGAN BRANNON, age 37, of Newport Beach, California, was convicted on all counts charged against him in an Indictment filed in October 2015, including conspiring to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute heroin, distributing heroin, and conspiring to commit money laundering. BRANNON’s guilty pleas ended a jury trial that had been in its third day before Chief U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson. BRANNON was remanded into the custody of the U.S. Marshal and will be sentenced on June 29, 2017.

BRANNON admitted that, between December 1, 2013, and October 2015, he conspired with individuals in California and Louisiana to distribute thousands of pills that had been pressed to resemble oxycodone that, in fact, contained over 1 kilogram of heroin. Upon delivery of the pills in Baton Rouge from California, they were then distributed to mid-level drug dealers and ultimately sold to drug abusers in East Baton Rouge and Livingston Parishes. Throughout the period of the conspiracy, BRANNON knew that the pills contained heroin, and his intent was to sell and profit from the sale of significant amounts of heroin. In January, February, and March 2015, BRANNON supplied over 30,000 heroin pills for distribution in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In addition, between July 2014 and April 2015, LAMBERT and others agreed to engage in financial transactions involving the proceeds of the heroin-trafficking offenses in order to conceal and disguise the source, ownership, and control of the illegally obtained drug proceeds.

BRANNON was identified, along with 9 others, as part of a substantial heroin-trafficking and money laundering conspiracy investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Tactical Diversion Squad, Baton Rouge District Office, and Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations New Orleans Field Office Division.

U.S. Attorney Green stated: “This conviction is another example of our continuing efforts to join with federal, state, and local law enforcement to neutralize the heroin epidemic sweeping our country and make our community safer. This organization sold and distributed press heroin pills disguised as oxycodone presents into our district from California. The risk created by such activity is unconscionable, particularly concerning the number of overdose deaths due to heroin use throughout our community and the nation. I greatly appreciate the hardworking team of federal, state, and local law enforcement agents and prosecutors who handled this important and impactful case.”

“The successful prosecution of the members of this drug trafficking organization should be a warning to others who engage in this type of activity,” stated DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Brad L. Byerley. “This case highlights the impact multiple agencies can have when they join forces. We will continue to work together and pursue those who threaten our communities through the smuggling and distribution of illegal and dangerous drugs and bring them to justice.”

Jerome R. McDuffie, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS – Criminal Investigation New Orleans Field Office, stated: “The prosecution of these individuals is a victory in the ongoing war against drugs. It is our extreme honor to serve alongside our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners in the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. It is vital to follow the money of illicit drug activity. Adding the particular skills of an IRS Special Agent to the investigation of drug enterprises, such as this one, is, in part, what allows the government to seize and forfeit the monetary proceeds of the organization, and convert those funds to use in the protection of the very communities these individuals would seek to destroy.”

This matter is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Louisiana, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Tactical Diversion Unit in the Baton Rouge District Office, and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, with assistance from the Louisiana State Police, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office, Baton Rouge Police Department, the DEA in Orange County, California, and Newport Beach Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Paul L. Pugliese and Frederick A. Menner, Jr.