A federal indictment was returned Thursday in the Middle District of Florida, charging 17 individuals with a drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy due to a joint investigation.
Two of the defendants have also been charged with two additional counts of distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.
According to court records, over the course of the past six years, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been involved in an investigation into a drug trafficking organization (DTO) that operates largely out of Lake County, Florida, with sources of supply or distributors in California, Texas, the eastern United States, and China.
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The Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) has investigated the laundering of drug proceeds by the DTO.
Since at least 2017, the DTO (led by Dudzinski Poole) has been responsible for trafficking thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine and fentanyl via commercial planes, trains, and mail, according to the Department of Justice.
So far, DEA has seized more than 250 pounds of drugs (mostly methamphetamine and fentanyl).
The defendants played various roles in the DTO: suppliers, distributors, couriers, and courier coordinators.
Each defendant is also charged with money laundering conspiracy.
The DTO has operated mainly through the use of couriers who fly to California from Florida with large sums of cash to purchase drugs and transport checked luggage full of drugs back to Florida on commercial flights.
These flights were typically between the Orlando International Airport (MCO) in Florida and the Palm Springs Airport (PSP) or the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in California. Flight records during a two-year period show more than 350 flights between California and Orlando among the various conspirators.
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The DTO also used couriers to transport large amounts of methamphetamine from Orlando to Virginia via train. In April 2022, one of these couriers was arrested at a train station in Virginia with approximately 10 pounds of methamphetamine inside a suitcase.
In addition to transporting drugs on commercial flights and trains, Poole and his associates had multiple stash houses and received hundreds of mailed packages of methamphetamine from California and other drugs, including fentanyl, from China.
Poole’s source of supply in California would ship packages containing anywhere from one pound to ten or more pounds of methamphetamine at a time. Poole would provide the source of supply various addresses to ship the drugs, including co-conspirators’ residences. Investigators have identified almost 400 packages that were shipped from California as part of this conspiracy from 2021 to 2023.
The members of this DTO also conspired with one another to engage in money laundering. A key aspect of this conspiracy was Poole’s development of an entertainment business that he used to promote concerts with legitimate artists, whom he paid with drug proceeds. Poole then commingled the profits from the ticket sales with the drug proceeds in the same business account. Members of the conspiracy also used drug proceeds to pay for various expenses of the DTO, and they engaged in other financial transactions to conceal the drug proceeds.
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| Multi-State Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Conspiracy–Defendant Chart | ||
| Name (Age, Residence) | Charges | Potential Penalties |
| Dudzinski Edwinn Poolea/k/a “Zink”(48, Apopka, FL) | Possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine (two counts), Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Melvin Tyrone Patterson, Jr.a/k/a “Goon”(31, Wildwood, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Andrew Woodruff, Jr.a/k/a “Smurf”(38, Mount Dora, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Jose Ivan Carbajala/k/a “Primo”(33, California) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Diego Navarro- Martineza/k/a “Shooter”(32, California) | Possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine (two counts), Drug trafficking conspiracy money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Michael Andre Chestera/k/a “Dre”(48, Apopka, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Samantha Tiesha Kinga/k/a “Mamp”(32, Altamonte Springs, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Felisha Denise Williamsa/k/a “Lil Momma”(34, Apopka, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Rodrieka Lashay Manninga/k/a “Drieka”(25, Apopka, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Janice Denise Andersona/k/a “Butter”(65, Mount Dora, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Oveda Denise Millera/k/a “Gangsta Granny”(60, Mount Dora, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Roland Richardson(63, Mount Dora, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| Latonya Sharee Conleya/k/a “Hershey”(46, Mount Dora, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
| George Nelvin King, Jr.(46, Altamonte Springs, FL) | Drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy | Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison |
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