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Press Release
Jackson, Miss – On Wednesday October 21, 2015, after a three day jury trial, Christopher Raynard Kidd, 27, of San Bernardino, California, was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute 50 grams of more of actual methamphetamine and distribution of 50 grams or more of actual methamphetamine, announced U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis and DEA Special Agent in Charge Keith Brown. He will be sentenced by Judge Daniel P. Jordan III on January 19, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $10 million fine on each count.
Another defendant in this case, Rodney Gerald Henderson, 70, of California and Mississippi, pled guilty on October 19, 2015, to conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of actual methamphetamine. He will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jordan on January 7, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $10 million fine.
Kidd and Henderson were indicted on August 19, 2014. On that day three separate indictments were unsealed charging twenty (20) defendants. The indictments were the result of “Operation Yeti Ice”, an extensive Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation, which began as an operation targeting illegal narcotics distribution in central Mississippi. The drug network involved the distribution of over 100 Kilograms of Methamphetamine and encompassed the states of California and Mississippi.
Operation Yeti Ice was an OCDETF operation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics with assistance from the U.S. Marshal Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Postal Service, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Scott County Sheriff’s Office, Leake County Sherriff’s Office, Madison County Sherriff’s Office, Carthage Police Department, Forest Police Department, Newton County Sherriff’s Office, Lauderdale County Sherriff’s Office, Decatur Police Department, Richland Police Department, Pearl Police Department, Ridgeland Police Department, and the Jackson Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Chalk prosecuted the case.
The OCDETF program is a joint federal, state and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking and is the nation’s primary tool for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations, and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.