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Recent raid deals blow to drug ring

April 30, 2008 @ 10:29 PM

CURTIS JOHNSON

The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- The arrest of three men last week struck a blow to a multistate drug distribution ring based in Huntington, court records show.

Authorities executed the drug raid April 24 at 1227 9th Avenue. Police arrested Garry Adaway, 38; Mychal O. Wright, 29; and Albert C. Tillet, 42.

According to a recent search warrant, Adaway and members of his drug organization have been the target of federal narcotic investigations since 1994.

The search warrant describes the drug organization as violent and "very large, with an interstate nexus and a highly organized gang." Its members have been identified in Columbus, Ohio; Beckley, W.Va.; and Huntington. It also has links to Winston-Salem, N.C.

The search warrant said the organization is dedicated to distributing cocaine. Witnesses tell authorities the organization distributes six to seven kilograms each week, and Adaway would distribute more than a kilogram himself on a weekly basis.

The drug ring and Adaway's involvement began to unravel in February, when State Police interviewed a man who described himself to be Adaway's middleman. That led to cooperation with authorities from Winston-Salem, N.C., and series of recorded telephone conversations.

It all ended with a Winston-Salem informant negotiating a cocaine purchase with Adaway, according to the warrant. The informant collected $17,000 for one-fourth kilogram of cocaine. The informant, working in concert with police, told Adaway the drugs would arrive two hours later.

Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook said the so-called cocaine shipment never arrived, but law enforcement did. The subsequent raid resulted in police confiscating about $40,000 cash, thousands of dollars in crack cocaine and about $5,000 in marijuana, along with assault rifles, counterfeit money and body armor.

Holbrook said the raid was a large victory, but urged others to keep it in perspective. He said it sends a message that authorities are not just looking at a unknown dealers from out of town.

"We won a small battle that is part of a larger war," he said. "I think it is somewhat significant that these are what you would call established, local targets. These are not transplanted people from Detroit or Columbus that just came in the past several years. These are people who have been in the community for some time.

"We have homegrown products, too, who are just as responsible for our drug problem as out-of-towners," Holbrook added.

The descriptive search warrant was filed Friday in U.S. District Court and approved one day earlier. It was authored by Tom E. Bevins, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The DEA participated, along with the Huntington Police Department, the FBI's Huntington Violent Crime Drug Task Force and other agencies.

The man, who first talked to State Police, told authorities Adaway would receive kilogram quantities of cocaine from Michigan. He would convert it to crack cocaine for distribution in Huntington, according to the search warrant.

In April 2008, local and federal authorities in Huntington started working with a detective in Winston-Salem. The North Carolina detective said her department had arrested a person in 2007, who was willing to become a confidential informant.

That informant told authorities he had been providing cocaine and marijuana to Adaway for about one year. In January 2007, the dealer-turned-informant sold Adaway 100 pounds of marijuana for $50,000. One month later he sold Adaway two kilograms of cocaine for $40,000.

The information from Winston-Salem led to a series of recorded telephone calls from an informant and Adaway. They discussed the informant providing Adaway with cocaine. Adaway said he could distribute five to 10 kilograms in a 24-hour period.

The recorded conversations and the informant's participation eventually led police to the 9th Avenue residence, where the raid commenced.