By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer
Trials for eight of ten people charged in a methamphetamine ring allegedly working out of Laurel County have been scheduled in U.S. District Court in London.
One of the ten indicted in February and March is apparently still on the loose.
Six were named in the first two-count indictment issued in February. In a 25-count superseding indictment in March, one of those was dropped and four added.
The trial for the eight was scheduled in federal court Thursday, by way of a telephonic pretrial conference, for Feb. 8, 2010 at 10 a.m.
Sandy Mills (aka Allsup) pleaded guilty to one count of the first indictment on Sept. 22, and is set for sentencing on Dec. 17.
In a plea agreement filed in May, Mills agreed that certain acts she committed could be proven, including that she and at least one other person conspired to make 50 grams or more of meth.
In the agreement, she admitted that on about Sept. 11 of last year, she and Edward Wagers, also a defendant, were arrested by Laurel County law enforcement officers in a traffic stop.
The officers, the statement says, found a bag of pseudoephedrine, starter fluid, Coleman fuel, lithium batteries, coffee filters and other items used in making meth.
After she was arrested, the document states, she told police Wagers was her only source for meth and she got about a half gram of meth about every other day.
She also told police she had been at Wagers’ home in Knox County many times when he was making meth and helped him by cleaning equipment used in the process.
She said she had been aware for about the past two years of Wagers’ production of meth and had seen about 20 sales by Wagers of the product.
Those sales sometimes were funded by the buyer by trading 40-gram oxycodone tables for the meth.
She named other conspirators including Edgar Bowling and Cleve Smith, both also named in the indictments. She told of Wagers getting anhydrous ammonia from Bowling for use in making meth in tanks intended for oxygen.
Also, she said, buyers would swap pseudoephedrine for meth. Typically, she said a box of pseudoephedrine would be worth a quarter gram of meth.
Along with Bowling, Cleve Smith and Wagers, Kenneth Adams, Mark. E. Smith, Rodney Bishop, Charles Jones and Jordan Smith will be tried in February. Richard Goley, also charged in the indictment, has apparently evaded arrest thus far.
All are charged in the first two counts of the indictment, with conspiring to make meth and in the second count conspiring to distribute the drug.
Wagers was charged alone on two counts, possessing pseudoephedrine for making meth and possessing oxycodone to be distributed.
In three counts, Cleve, Mark and Jordan Smith and Charles Jones were charged with possessing pseudoephedrine and meth as well as having equipment to make meth.
Mark Smith was also charged with managing and controlling a camper on KY 229 in Knox County as a place to make meth.
Goley and Bowling were charged with possessing pseudoephedrine for making meth.
Goley and Bishop were charged with having meth for distribution.
Adams was charged with having equipment to make meth and intending to distribute meth.
Bishop and Bowling were also charged with having equipment to make meth and distributing meth.
Bishop, Bowling, Cleve Smith and Wagers were also charged with using firearms.
Those charged are subject, if convicted, to up to life in prison and/or millions in fines.
