Federal Grand Jury Indicts 16 in Narcotics Conspiracy

CINCINNATI – A federal grand jury has charged sixteen individuals with charges related to distribution of fentanyl, maintaining drug-involved premises, firearms offenses and money laundering in a 45-count indictment filed here today.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Timothy J. Plancon, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Trevor Velinor, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Ohio State Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Paul A. Pride and Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot K. Isaac announced the indictment.

Those charged include:

*Two defendants – Dickey and Engram – are currently fugitives.

The indictment alleges that the drug trafficking organization distributed more than 400 grams of fentanyl from September 2016 until agents executed search and arrest warrants on June 26, 2017.

Each of the defendants is charged with participating in a drug distributing conspiracy through various roles such as leader, supplier of drugs, packager, holder, intermediary, helper, stash house operator and launderer of drug proceeds.

Text messages sent to various defendants’ cell phones revealed communications asking about the quantity and quality of fentanyl. “Customers” allegedly texted the defendants complaining about getting “shorted” and asking for “fronts” on drugs.

For example, on August 13, 2016, Mathews received a text message stating “Chris ur … scale is off. I can take my grand a week else where!”

A message received a month later stated: “bro I cant barely move im so sick but no money yet today. Can I get a little bit on credit?”

Walker received a similar message from a user saying the user was “going out of town” and “just don’t want to be sick.”

Defendants also allegedly received text messages complaining about the quality of the drugs, including messages like “this…getting supppeerr weak btw kinda sucks a lil” and “…that was pure garbage. Did absolutely nothing. Big waste of $70! Pure waste.”

The indictment alleges multiple other conversations between defendants discussing drug transactions, undercover police, surveillance and other dealers selling bad dope and its effect on their business.

“This indictment charges sixteen people in a conspiracy to traffic fentanyl in and around Cincinnati over the last nine months,” said U.S. Attorney Glassman. “Six of the defendants are also charged with laundering thousands of dollars of their drug money by renting dozens of cars, which were in turn used to support the drug-trafficking operation.”

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by the DEA, ATF, Ohio State Highway Patrol and Cincinnati Police, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Karl P. Kadon, who is prosecuting the case.

An indictment merely contains allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

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