ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 22, 1997 TAG: 9704220090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
``It's like a mail-order business,'' a U.S. attorney said of the operation: ``The only difference is that the product is marijuana.''
A bicoastal marijuana ring began to unravel when the Internal Revenue Service learned of suspiciously large amounts of money being wired from East Coast cities to Los Angeles, authorities said Monday.
To avoid a requirement to report wire transfers greater than $10,000 to the IRS, members of the drug ring would make several smaller transfers a day that added up to more than $10,000, said Fernando Groene, an assistant U.S. district attorney.
Western Union employees began reporting the multiple transfers as suspicious, Groene said.
The IRS started investigating in late 1994 and discovered that the people wiring the money were giving fake names and addresses. Law enforcement agencies including the FBI then got involved.
``It wasn't very much later that we began suspecting that drugs were involved,'' Groene said.
The investigation led to the indictments April 11 of 43 people charged with a conspiracy to peddle marijuana since 1991.
``We're talking $12 million to $13 million worth of marijuana,'' Groene said.
Thirty-one people were arrested Thursday. The rest had not been captured by Monday.
Fifteen of those indicted are from Virginia and 24 are from the Los Angeles area. The others are from New York City; Rochester, N.Y.; and Baltimore, Md.
Authorities held a news conference Monday to discuss the indictments and display some of the items confiscated during the investigation, including guns, money, cellular phones and marijuana.
Authorities said leaders of the drug ring were from Jamaica and it included 12 to 15 Jamaican nationals.
The ring had four leaders operating out of Newport News, Groene said.
He identified them as Junior Anthony Simms, 31, of Los Angeles; Trevor George Smith, 34, of Newport News; Cassandra Crumble, 22, of Hampton; and Frederick Dixon, 20, of Newport News. Simms had moved to Los Angeles, Groene said.
US. Attorney Helen Fahey said authorities did not know why the ring leaders selected Newport News.
``You have to assume they make a decision that there is a market and that they can make a substantial profit,'' Fahey said.
The indictment described an operation that shipped 25,000 pounds of marijuana from the West Coast to the East Coast using mail and commercial delivery services.
Jamaicans in Los Angeles bought marijuana from Mexican nationals there for $250 a pound and shipped it to Eastern cities, where it could be sold for $1,200 a pound, Groene said.
``It's like a mail-order business,'' Groene said. ``The only difference is that the product is marijuana.''
The indictment included operating a continuing criminal enterprise, money laundering and trafficking in clone cellular phones that were used to make drug deals.
Also indicted was Richard W. Teagle Sr., 70. He was a local real estate giant in the 1960s and '70s and a former commissioner of the Newport News Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
Authorities have begun foreclosure proceedings against 11 of 13 rental properties owned or managed by Teagle that the group is accused of using to launder $3.5 million in drug money.
The indictment also alleged that Teagle ordered some marijuana. Authorities declined to discuss details of the case against Teagle.
Teagle was released Friday on $100,000 bond. The 14 other people arrested in Virginia are to have bond hearings today in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.
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