NEWS RELEASE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
John L. Brownlee United States Attorney Brian McGinn Public Affairs Specialist |
BB&T Building 310 1st Street, S.W., Room 906 Roanoke, Virginia 24011 (540) 857-2974 FAX (540) 857-2179 |
April 30, 2008
LAW ENFORCEMENT BREAKS UP MAJOR CRACK COCAINE DISTRIBUTION CONSPIRACY; GRAND JURY CHARGES 51 PEOPLE FROM VIRGINIA, TENNESSEE AND NORTH CAROLINA
United States Attorney John L. Brownlee announced today that local, state and federal law enforcement have taken down a major crack cocaine distribution ring. The investigation, which took over one and one-half years, culminated today with the unsealing of Criminal Complaint in United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Abingdon. The Complaint charged 51 individuals with being involved in a conspiracy to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute cocaine powder and crack cocaine.
“We will continue to fight the sale and distribution of crack and powder cocaine and hold those drug dealers responsible for their crimes,” United States Attorney John Brownlee said today. “I want to thank all the federal, state and local law enforcement officials who undertook this very difficult and very wide-ranging investigation,”
According to the criminal complaint, in January 2007 law enforcement agents from multiple agencies began targeting a large scale crack cocaine distribution organization operating in southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee, and North Carolina. The drug-trafficking organization had been operating in the region for a number of years and was headed by the members of KANTSTOP RECORDS, Inc., a music production company based out of Burlington, North Carolina. Ultimately, the drug trafficking organization grew to actively involve at least 51 people in Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, in the distribution of crack cocaine.
According to evidence discovered through the course of the investigation, KANTSTOP RECORDS, Inc., was a music production company incorporated in the state of Tennessee in 2003 by Derrick Lamont Evans (aka “Shank”), age 34, of Gray, Tennessee, and Bryant Kelly Pride (aka “Pride”), age 36, of Bristol, Virginia.
Evans was listed as the President of KANTSTOP RECORDS, Inc. and Pride was listed as the executive vice president/chief executive officer. The production company sponsored the musicians Marcus Andrew Watkins (aka “Sparkz”), age 30, Andre Lamont Watkins (“Huff da Author”), age 30, and Tyree Lamar Slade (“Ovious Mcfly”), age 26, all of Burlington, North Carolina, who made up the music group “Fam 1st.”
Charles Jermaine King, age 31, of Burlington, North Carolina, was also sponsored by KANTSTOP RECORDS, Inc., and performed under the name “Zig-Lah.” Based upon the investigation, it became clear to law enforcement officials that the musicians associated with KANTSTOP RECORDS, Inc. had been distributing crack cocaine in the Bristol, Virginia region since at least 2003. In addition, investigators determined that musicians sponsored by KANTSTOP RECORDS Inc. consistently recruited friends and associates from the Burlington, North Carolina area to transport and distribute large quantities of crack cocaine into a geographic region that ranged from Sullivan County, Tennessee north to Washington and Russell counties in Virginia.
Furthermore, many individuals from Virginia and Tennessee were recruited by Pride, Evans, and others associated with KANTSTOP RECORDS, Inc., to serve as street-level dealers of crack cocaine, to act as drivers used to transport crack cocaine throughout the organization’s distribution area and to provide locations at which powder cocaine was sold, stored, and transformed into crack cocaine and sold.
Information from numerous sources led law enforcement officials to conclude that KANTSTOP RECORDS, Inc., was used by members of the drug trafficking organization as a means to launder the proceeds earned from the distribution of more than 100 kilograms of crack cocaine in the Bristol region. Throughout the course of the investigation more than $25,000 in United States currency, numerous vehicles, firearms and multiple ounces of cocaine and crack cocaine have been seized by law enforcement agencies.
The investigation of this case was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigative Division, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Bristol, Tennessee Police Department, the Bristol, Virginia Police Department, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department, the Abingdon Police Department, the Washington County, Virginia Sheriff’s Department, the Virginia State Police, and the 2nd Judicial District Drug Task Force. The investigation was assisted by the United States Marshal’s Service, the Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office, the Washington County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, the City of Bristol Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Assistant United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee of the United States Attorney’s Office in Abingdon will prosecute the case.
A criminal complaint is simply a charge and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.