Nine Indicted in Federal Drug Conspiracy

ABINGDON, Va. – A federal grand jury in Abingdon, Virginia indicted nine individuals last week charging them with participating in a federal drug conspiracy that trafficked methamphetamine from North Carolina into southwest Virginia.

All nine defendants have been arrested and are now in federal custody.

The indictment charges Marcos Adrian Martinez Rodriguez, Nestor Gutierrez-Gonzalez, Isaias Cisneros-Hernandez, Loeum Vinn Tok, Joan Mary Schugardt, Cody Allen Cashatt, Johnie Zeke Derose, April Renae Maness, and Richard Wayne Greer.

All nine defendants are charged with one count of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. In addition, Greer is charged with one count of knowingly using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

According to court documents, from June 2021 and October 2021, the defendants operated a methamphetamine distribution ring in and around Lexington, North Carolina. During the life of the conspiracy, methamphetamine was transported into southwest Virginia for distribution.  Last year, Joshua Kogod, of Smyth County, Virginia, was convicted for his role in the conspiracy.   

United States Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh and Stanley M. Meador, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Division made the announcement.

The investigation, which remains ongoing, is being conducted by FBI in Virginia and North Carolina as well as the Lexington, N.C. Police Department; the Davidson County, N.C. Sheriff’s Office; and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carrie Macon and Whit D. Pierce are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.