8 arrested, including two teens, four juveniles, during DTF raid
Eight people were arrested, including two adults, two teens and four juveniles, in a raid Tuesday evening by the local drug task force on a suspected drug house on Lacey Street, where several guns and over 6 pounds of suspected marijuana were recovered.
Around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, investigators with the 18th Judicial District East Drug Task Force with the assistance of U.S. Homeland Security and the Hot Springs police S.W.A.T team executed a search warrant at 109 Lacey St., the listed residence of Cori Renee Lopez, 34, and Nathaniel Speed, 18, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained Wednesday.
Lopez, Speed, Destiny Shyann McGlothlin, 20, who lists her address as “city streets,” and Brandon Douglas James, 18, who lists a Hickory Street address, were located inside the house with marijuana and firearms “spread throughout the residence” and were taken into custody and transported to the Garland County Detention Center.
There were also five juveniles in the residence, ages 6, 12, 13, 16 and 17, and the older four were arrested and transported to the juvenile detention center. The affidavit notes the juveniles were “in the residence where a drug premise was being maintained to process marijuana in large quantities.”
In searching the residence, investigators allegedly found 3,041.6 grams or approximately 6.7 pounds, of suspected marijuana; a .22-caliber pistol, a Glock .40-caliber handgun, loaded with rounds in the chamber and magazine; a Tennessee Arms 5.56X45 AR-15 rifle, loaded with rounds in the chamber and magazine; a Colt .45-caliber handgun; digital scales; and “multiple boxes of sandwich bags to process marijuana.”
It was noted the residence was being rented by Lopez from a local investment company and the property is located within 1,000 feet of Calvary Missionary Baptist Church.
Lopez, Speed, McGlothlin and James were each charged with felony counts of simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, punishable by up to life in prison, unauthorized use of another person’s property to facilitate certain crimes, punishable by up to 20 years, possession of marijuana with purpose to deliver, punishable by up to 10 years, and a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia, punishable by up to one year in jail.
Lopez, James and McGlothlin were also each charged with a felony count of distributing a controlled substance near certain facilities, punishable by up to 10 years, and Lopez was charged with an additional felony count of maintaining a drug premises, punishable by up to 20 years, and a misdemeanor count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, punishable by up to one year in jail.
According to court records, Lopez was previously convicted of felony theft of property over $1,000 in Sebastian County on July 6, 2016, and sentenced to five years in prison, with all of it suspended. Speed, McGlothlin and James list no prior criminal history.