Pair from Russellville get time for drug-ring roles

LITTLE ROCK — Two defendants who pleaded guilty to involvement in a largescale drug trafficking ring in Pope County were sentenced to prison Tuesday by a federal judge.

David Singleton, 39, of Russellville, was sentenced to 10 years, 11 months for his part in the conspiracy to which he pleaded guilty in December 2020.

Katherine Ross, 30, also of Russellville, was sentenced to five years in prison for her participation. She pleaded guilty in February 2020.

Both Singleton and Ross entered guilty pleas to one count each of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine before U.S. District Judge Brian Miller.

With the latest sentencings, the long-running racketeering and drug conspiracy case nears the halfway point of its conclusion with 27 defendants having been sentenced. Another 27 defendants who entered guilty pleas still await sentencing, as well as one defendant who went to trial and was found guilty.

One defendant, Troy “Tricky” Loadholdt, 40, of Russellville, has been missing since before the first indictment was handed up by a federal grand jury in 2017 and is considered a fugitive.

Of the 27 co-defendants sentenced so far, only one has avoided prison time. Susan Hampton, 38, of Russellville, was sentenced Jan. 8, 2021, to time served after her Jan. 6, 2021, plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

Other sentences have ranged from the three-year sentence handed down to Ralph Ross to a 35-year sentence handed down to Wesley Gullett, the reputed outside president of the New Aryan Empire. Other sentences have ranged from five years to 27 years and 10 months.

Marcus Millsap, 54, of Danville — the only defendant to go to trial — was convicted Sept. 24 of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), aiding and abetting attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine following a 14-day trial.

As of March 23, Millsap had requested and been granted eight motions to extend the time to file objections to a presentence report that will be used to determine a sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. He faces the possibility of life in prison.

Federal investigators dubbed the case Operation “To the Dirt,” a reference to the New Aryan Empire slogan that refers to a rule that gang members must stay in the gang until they die.

The case began in 2016 when Pope County authorities, assisted by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, began investigating the murder of an Atkins man who was believed to have been killed by a member of the gang.

In 2017, drug conspiracy and weapons charges were filed against 44 people in Pope County who were accused of running or participating in a drug trafficking ring. Several defendants were reputed members of the New Aryan Empire, a violent, white supremacist gang that began in the Pope County jail in the 1990s and spread into the state prison system and then into communities around the state.

As members were released from prison, authorities said, the New Aryan Empire began trafficking drugs to support the group’s activities and engaged in violent reprisals against those who were suspected of talking to law enforcement.

In 2019, a superseding indictment expanded the number of defendants by 11 and added charges of conspiracy to violate the RICO Act against some defendants as well as charges of kidnapping, maiming, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder in aid of racketeering against several defendants.