Nine Charged in Multistate Marijuana Trafficking and Shoplifting Conspiracies
Government Seeks Forfeiture of 117 Pieces of Real Estate, Cars, Boats
| U.S. Attorney’s Office December 22, 2010 |
CINCINNATI, OH—A federal grand jury here indicted nine people alleging that they conspired to traffic more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana between Arizona and Ohio, used the proceeds to buy real estate including more than 100 parcels in and around Lima, Ohio, and ran a multistate shoplifting ring targeting numerous commercial supply stores in a number of states to get items to maintain the properties.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Keith L. Bennett, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cincinnati Field Division (FBI), and Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) announced the indictment returned December 15 and unsealed following the defendants’ arrests.
Named in the indictment are:
- Frederick Reed, a.k.a. “Freaky Fred”, 57, Lima, Ohio
- Rocco Evangelista, a.k.a. “Rock”, 53, Sunbury, Ohio
- Garry Gilliam, 56, London Correctional Facility, London, Ohio
- Jackson Brooks Pinnell, 58, Lima, Ohio
- Peter Younger Smith, 38, Lima, Ohio
- George Primm, 66, LaVergne, Tennessee
- Ryan Primm, 24, LaVergne, Tennessee
- John Wayne Daulton, a.k.a. “Captain”, 60, West Union, Ohio
- John Myers, 61, Dayton, Ohio
The indictment alleges that Reed, Evangelista, Gilliam, Pinnell and Daulton conspired beginning in 1993 to transport large quantities of marijuana between Arizona and southern Ohio. The indictment alleges that Reed used the profits from the marijuana distribution to buy automobiles, motorcycles, real property in Arizona and in and around the Lima, Ohio area as well as for narcotics for personal consumption and to finance gambling activities.
Count two of the indictment alleges that Reed, Smith, Pinnell, George Primm, Ryan Primm and Myers conspired to shoplift items from commercial supply stores in at least ten states beginning in 1996. The indictment accuses them of renting vans and using a trailer Reed owned to transport the stolen commercial supply items across state lines in order to maintain their primary and vacation homes as well as numerous rental properties they wholly or partially owned in and around Lima, Port Clinton, Sunbury, West Union, and Sardinia, Ohio.
The indictment seeks forfeiture of 117 real properties in and around those cities, nine cars and trailers, and three boats.
All defendants will appear before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Cincinnati on Thursday, December 23 for an arraignment on the charges.
Conspiring to traffic more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana is punishable by a minimum sentence of ten years and up to life imprisonment. Conspiracy to transport more than $5,000 in stolen property in interstate commerce is punishable by up to five years in prison.
The investigation grew from a 2006 investigation based in Clermont County, Ohio that resulted in guilty pleas from 11 people in the case U.S. v Jose Alfonso Silveyra et al.
Stewart commended the joint investigation by agents in the FBI's Cincinnati Division along with agents in the FBI's resident agencies in Lima, Ohio and Nashville, Tennessee, as well as the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Ohio BCI agents, and deputies and officers with the sheriff’s offices in Clermont, Adams and Allen counties in Ohio, and the police departments in Lima and Ft. Shawnee, Ohio, along with the Davidson County (Tennessee) Sheriff’s Office, the Franklin, Brentwood, and Gallatin police departments in Tennessee, and the Phoenix, Arizona Police Department.
Stewart also commended Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Chief Kenneth L. Parker, who is prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.