Brownwood: Feds nab 21 people on drug charges

Feds nab 21 people on drug charges
By Celinda Emison / Reporter-News Staff Writer
July 22, 2005

BROWNWOOD - Twenty-one people, many of them area residents, were arrested on federal drug indictments Wednesday during a multi-law enforcement agency sweep.
During a news conference, U.S. District Attorney Tanya Pierce indicated all but one of the people face federal charges relating to the manufacture, delivery and distribution of methamphetamine.
''More specifically, we're talking about the drug 'ice,''' said Pierce, the lead prosecutor in the case. ''This is meth that is manufactured in super-labs in Mexico.''
Pierce called ice the ''caviar of methamphetamine. It's 98, 99 percent pure, very addictive and a money-making substance.''
The arrests were the result of an ongoing undercover investigation that dates back to 2003, said Pierce, who works out of Lubbock. Between 60 and 70 officers from various law enforcement agencies were stationed at the command post at the Groner Pitts National Guard Armory in Brownwood and began making arrests at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Those arrested were rounded up at the armory and then booked into the Brown County Jail. Nine of the defendants will be taken to the Tom Green County Jail in San Angelo, where they will go before U.S. District Judge Phil Lane today. The rest of the defendants will be taken to Lubbock where their cases will be tried by Judge Sam Cummings in the U.S. District Court there.
Charges against 20 defendants in the federal case were related to the manufacture, possession and sale of meth. One defendant who was already in custody was charged with a firearms violation. Three of the people facing drug charges remained at large Thursday.
Pierce said all of the defendants face life in prison in the federal cases.
The investigation involved the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Brown County Sheriff's Office, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Brownwood Police Department, Brown County Attorney's Office, the 35th District Attorney's Office, the Department of Public Safety and the Rio Concho Multi-Agency Drug Task Force, which includes the West Central Texas Interlocal Crime Task Force.
''We've made a severe dent in the meth problem in Brown County,'' Sheriff Bobby Grubbs said. ''But it's still out there and we know that when we take out 20 people, there will be 20 more.''
Wednesday's sweep, sponsored by the U.S. District Court Northern District, came almost a year to the day after a similar sweep in Abilene broke up a crack-cocaine ring. Six years ago, 41 people were arrested in a sweep in Brown County that also broke up a crack-cocaine ring. In 2001, another sweep brought various drug charges against 48 people.

Charges
Charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine
Roy Mata, 45, (arrested in Fort Worth July 18)
Christopher Ray May, 42, (arrested in Fort Worth July 18)
Arrested July 20
Christy Jean Nevins, 43, (arrested in Fort Worth)
Christine Leann Beene, 40, Brownwood
Billie Diaz, 52, arrested in Coleman County
Thomas Randall Box, 41, Blanket
William Jamie Shank, 33, Brownwood
Raimie Grace Stieber, 29, Brownwood
Corelio Banda, 31, Brownwood (at large)
Stephen Insall, 39, Dallas-Fort Worth area, in custody at the Tarrant County Jail, will be charged
Michel Lea Insall, 33, Dallas-Fort Worth area (at large)

Charged with conspiracy to possess and with intent to deliver methamphetamine and possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine and firearms charges:
Victor Manuel Garza Jr., 25, Brownwood
Juan Manuel Gonzalez, 28, Brownwood
William Allen Maas, 25, Early
Mariaelena Nino Hernandez, 47, May
Antonio Tinajero Hernandez, 33, May
Andrea Maxine Stevens Herrera, 43, Brownwood
William Ray Herrera, 47, Brownwood

Conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine
Jerry Wayne Petross, 26, Blanket (arrested in Comanche)
April Shawn Hall, 31, Blanket
Joe William Stephens, 35, May
Thomas Dudley Sansom, 46, Brownwood (was already in custody at Brown County Jail)
Joel Jerome Grumbles, 35, Carbon (at large)

Possession of a stolen firearm and theft of a firearm
Jeremiah Willson, 28, Clyde, formerly of Brownwood (was in custody at the Brown County Jail).

source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_local/article/0,1874,ABIL_7959_3945706,00.html