CORBIN — By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer

Day nine of the federal court trial of five charged with operating a drug conspiracy in at least five states is over.

The trial continued Tuesday with testimony by Jerel Hughes, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Hughes continued from Thursday his testimony explaining the meaning of information gleaned from telephone taps made by the DEA while investigating the drug conspiracy.

Twelve men and one woman charged in the conspiracy were indicted on Sept. 23 last year. Three of the men and one of the women have pleaded guilty to charges. Four men were not taken to trial. The five remaining went to trial in London.

After, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Dotson called for playing each of a long list of conversations, most in the Serbo-Croation Bosnian dialect as well as Spanish.

An English transcript was furnished to the jury and others for assistance, though the jurors were told by Judge Amul Thapar that they will not be allowed to take the transcripts with them when they begin discussion.

With the playing of the phone calls, Hughes would discuss the conversations prompted by questions from Dotson.

The conversations were about buying and selling cocaine.

Emir Dadanovic, the apparent ring leader of the group, in one call asked the other person on line when they start what Hughes called “a new round of cocaine.”

Earlier testimony indicated that Dadanovic bought cocaine in 25 kilogram lots.

As the phone taps were played, Hughes explained about how the distribution system worked.

He would allegedly parcel it out to a group of sales persons, including Omer Dugalic and Kemal Dugalic to put it into the hands of others who would sell it at street level.

He would first put out one third of the 25 kilogram lot and avoid putting out any more until he would take in enough cash from the first round sales to purchase another lot of 25.

Trial of Dadanovic, the Dugalics, Donta Hamilton, and Jerdin Ovidio Yanes began on Aug. 23.

In one of the playbacks, Dadanovic said he has to earn enough money to pay the organization first before issuing more cocaine for his sales persons to sell for the profit.

Dadanovic said in one of his telephone conversations that he had to pay for the cocaine he had purchased, apparently on credit, from his source before he could order more.

Hughes continued to help the jury understand the conversations by translating the slang used by the alleged drug dealers.

For instance, he said, the word “work” was meant to refer to selling drugs. “Company,” he said, was the word used for the distribution organization.

“Wheat” is often used instead of money.

At one point the word went out that it was time for the conspirators to get new cellular telephones. That was a tip to the DEA that it should proceed to shutdown the  conspiracy.

In Indianapolis, what seems to have been the headquarters and the site of the “stash house” where upon being searched cocaine was found along with other drug dealing paraphernalia, the DEA began to tighten itself around the conspirators.

They kept them under watch until on Oct. 13, 2009, when the decision to make the arrests was made.

Dadanovic and Omer Dugalic were arrested that day. Oct. 14, Yanes and Kemal Dugalic were arrested and Hamilton on Oct. 16.

Testimony continues on Wednesday.

Others charged in the indictment were Halil Batlak, who was named Thursday as a cocaine delivery person. He was arrested on Oct. 14, 2009, pleaded guilty to one count on April 30, this year.

Mladen Bjelogravic, arrested on Oct. 14, 2009, pleaded guilty on Aug. 9, this year.

Earnestina Hajric, girlfriend of K. Dugalic, arrested Oct. 14, 2009, pleaded guilty on Aug. 9.

Shane Page was arrested on Oct. 14, 2009 and pleaded guilty on Aug. 9.

Also charged in the indictment, but still apparently at large are Igor Jokic, Miralem Dervisbegovic, Ifran Demerovi and Oscar Maruricio Cordova-Hernande.