FORT WORTH, Texas -- Federal authorities closed down a major drug trafficking operation that mailed large quantities of marijuana from several Arlington post offices to St. Croix, Justice Department officials disclosed Thursday.
Eleven people were arrested Thursday morning in St. Croix, including a territorial court marshal. Six others were arrested last week in North Texas.
Each faces charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana or conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Federal court documents indicate that since November 2009, suspects sent more than 120 Express Mail parcels to at least six different locations in St. Croix with each parcel weighing about 12 pounds.
Suspects then received at last 110 inbound parcels containing proceeds in the form of money orders, federal officials say. Seventy-eight of those 110 parcels contained $385,055 in money orders, according to federal documents.
"These arrests culminate a more than two-year investigation into the shipping of large quantities of marijuana from Arlington, Texas, to St. Croix," said U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldana of the Northern District of Texas in a news release.
Arrested Thursday morning in St. Croix were Michelle Gaskin Encarnacion, 29; Lucien Williams, 47; Elizabeth Felix, 41; Jairzhino Marten, 35; Aisha Nayoki Williams, 24; Clarence Alfonso Williams, 31; Kerena Prentice, aka "Kerena Prentis," 27; Tessa Lewis, 35; Vernon Frank Sutton, Jr., 56; and Kareem Ambrose, 32. The St. Croix official arrested was Sylvester Augustin, 29, a territorial court marshal.
Suspects arrested on April 3 in North Texas were Neil Nick Rene, 35, of Duncanville; Sylvia Francisca Granville, 44, hometown not listed: Carl Gayheart Schou, 47, of Fort Worth; Eddie House, Jr., 47, hometown not listed; Tanisha Jernae Williams, 28, of Fort Worth; and Laura Louise Ryan-Rene, 42, of Duncanville.
Neil Nick Rene of Duncanville was named as the primary participant in the organization. He is accused of mailing large quantities of marijuana to Frederiksted and Christiansted in St. Croix, federal authorities said in the news release.
Parcels with money orders were returned to various North Texas addresses that included five in Fort Worth, two in Dallas, and one each in Arlington and Duncanville, according to federal authorities.
Postal inspectors began investigating the organization in December 2009 after receiving a tip about the parcels.
Using an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service narcotics dog, authorities identified a parcel with illegal drugs at the American Airlines cargo facility at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport on Dec. 5 and continued to monitor the group.
"These arrests should serve as a warning that postal inspectors will not tolerate the nation's mail system being misused to traffic narcotics," said Randall C. Till, Postal Inspector in Charge, Fort Worth Division, in the news release.
If convicted of federal drug charges, each defendant faces a maximum of 40 years in prison. On conspiracy to commit money laundering charges, each faces a maximum of 20 years.
Their trials will be in Fort Worth, authorities said.
The investigation was conducted by the Dallas and Fort Worth offices of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service -- Criminal Investigation, special agents and officers of the HIDTA Task Forces in St. Croix and St. Thomas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department.
Copyright 2012 - Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
