HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The U.S. District Attorney’s Office announced the arrests of 42 people connected to a nationwide drug operation based out of Houston.
On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the group of people accused in a massive prescription drug operation appeared in federal court following their arrests back in July.
Twenty-four suspects were arrested on July 30 after superseding indictment charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute in Arkansas.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the arrests followed the initial indictment and arrest of 18 people from Houston in November 2023.
The 24 suspects arrested in July allegedly participated in numerous burglaries in 31 states and appeared in the Eastern District of Arkansas on Thursday before United States Magistrate Joseph J. Volpe.
A Houston man, Keith Brown, 34, and 41 others were named in a superseding indictment, which includes charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, as well as pharmacy burglary, conspiracy to commit pharmacy burglary, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
This criminal organization prioritized money and greed over the safety and well-being of the American people. Their goal was to sell stolen pharmaceuticals in our neighborhoods for easy money.
Special Agent in Charge Steven Hofer, DEA New Orleans Division
Authorities said more than 20 pharmacy burglaries and thefts of pharmaceutical narcotics in Arkansas were identified from February 2022 to November 2023.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the suspects used similar methods of entry and tools for each of the burglaries and even matched their clothes with unique footwear.
Oxycodone, hydrocodone, alprazolam, and promethazine with codeine cough syrup were among the prescription drugs transported to Houston and sold illicitly. Investigators said hundreds of thousands of pharmaceutical drugs with a street value of more than $12 million were involved in the burglary ring.
Authorities said investigators also seized 11 firearms, about $79,000, and custom jewelry retailing about $510,000.
“Through the DEA’s investigative efforts across the country, which spanned nearly three years, we were able to link this drug trafficking organization to more than 200 pharmacy burglaries across 31 states and ultimately make our communities safer,” Hofer said.
“The current case is similar in kind and scope to a 2016 case indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas in which twenty-four members of a local Houston Fifth Ward gang, ‘The Trill Fam,’ were prosecuted for multi-state pharmacy burglaries and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. One current defendant, Thristian Duplechin, was prosecuted in the 2016 indictment, served a federal sentence, and returned to the same criminal activity,” the DEA said in a press release.
List of alleged pharmacy burglary conspirators arrested in July:
- Paul Roosevelt Banks, III, 30
- Carl Anthony Brooks, Jr., 33
- Christopher John Closure, 39
- Shaun Kardover Lewis, Jr., 25
- Kimia Tranese Ratcliff, 26
- Thristian Davonte Duplechin, 31
- Jaevion Armond Hackett, 21
- Keyia Rochelle Thomas, 34
- Markeesha Kenya Hampton, 28
- Jasmine Shanee Howard, 23
- Alvin Bernard Whidby, II, 43
- Redrick Dewayne Jackson, 33
- Jonathan Marijahlee Williams, 37
“These defendants were part of a criminal organization whose objective was to break into pharmacies nationwide to steal narcotics that they peddled on the streets,” Jonathan D. Ross, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, said. “This case exemplifies the hard work put in by federal, state, and local agencies working together to infiltrate and dismantle violent gangs whose main mission is for profit and the destruction of communities. Our office is committed to prosecuting multi-state criminal organizations that effect not only the Eastern District of Arkansas, but citizens across the United States.”
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