Task Force Arrests Seven Indicted in Federal Court for Prescription Drug Conspiracy
| U.S. Attorney’s Office June 09, 2011 |
BIRMINGHAM—Members of a federal drug enforcement task force today arrested seven people charged in a conspiracy to illegally distribute the prescription pain killer Oxycontin, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Maley.
The FBI and other members of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, including Lauderdale County and Colbert County drug task forces and the Alabama Beverage Control Board, rounded up defendants in Operation Oxymoron this morning. Four of the seven were arrested in Birmingham and three in the Shoals Area of northwest Alabama. They are among nine people indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month. The indictment was unsealed following today’s arrest.
The indictment charges all nine defendants with conspiring, between about February 2008 and August 2009, in Lauderdale and Jefferson counties, to unlawfully possess with the intent to distribute the controlled substance oxycodone, also known by the brand name, Oxycontin.
Arrested on the federal indictment in Birmingham were: ADAM GOODMAN, 34, TAMMY GOODMAN, 36, JARSHAD ALEXANDER, 21, and LATITIA DUDLEY, 32, all of Birmingham. Arrested in Shoals Area were: DARIUS BYRD, 22, of Sheffield, ORLANDAS CORBIN, 21, AND LEO JERMAINE KING, 26, both of Florence.
Also charged in the indictment are LAWRENCE DUDLEY, 36, of Birmingham, and SKYLAR CARTER, 30, of Trussville. Dudley is already in custody in Jefferson County on unrelated charges. Carter is scheduled to turn himself in to federal authorities on Friday.
Fifteen other people were arrested on state charges in connection to the drug conspiracy. Fourteen of those arrests were in northwest Alabama. One was in Birmingham.
Assisting OCDETF members in today’s roundup were the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Florence Police Department, Colbert County Sheriff’s Department, Sheffield Police Department, Lauderdale County District Attorney’s Office, Alabama Attorney General’s Office and Trussville Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Terence O’Rourke is prosecuting the case.
Members of the public are reminded that the indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.