Last in drug case starts trial in LR
U.S. calls man ring’s leader
A federal jury trial began Monday in Little Rock for Rafael McDaniel, the purported leader of a violent cocaine trafficking ring based in West Memphis from January 2012 through November 2013.
McDaniel, 32, of West Memphis is the only defendant, out of 20 people simultaneously arrested in four states on Nov. 18, 2013, who hasn’t pleaded guilty in the case.
The arrests stemmed from a sealed indictment handed up by a federal grand jury on Nov. 6, 2013, after a twoyear investigation by officers with the FBI, the Arkansas State Police and the West Memphis Police Department. Authorities dubbed the investigation Operation Delta Crossroads.
As the first witness took the stand Monday afternoon, jurors mostly watched silent video excerpts of a search conducted at McDaniel’s home on Feb. 19, 2012. FBI Agent Alan Darety, formerly a narcotics sergeant with the West Memphis Police Department, narrated the videos that he took at the house where he said McDaniel lived with his fiancee and a child.
The video first showed the outside of the one-story house, where several vehicles, including a white van belonging to McDaniel’s heating and air business, were parked in the driveway or in front of the house. The video then showed the door opening and the interior of the cluttered house, room by room, as Darety walked through, pausing to zero in on specific objects, such as a handgun tucked into a couch cushion, other guns lying out in the open and boxes of ammunition. The officer also filmed piles of cash that he said totaled $12,652, and drug paraphernalia such as a small round marijuana grinder and a cocaine press.
After the filmed items were admitted into evidence, prosecutors walked slowly in front of the jury box displaying the guns and paraphernalia to jurors.
Other than saying that the house was searched under the authority of a search warrant, Darety didn’t say under what circumstances the search warrant was issued, or why no one was home at the time. The house appeared to be unlocked as Darety effortlessly opened a glass security door and walked in past the entry door, which stood open.
McDaniel is accused of possessing 14 guns in furtherance of drug trafficking. The 14 guns seized during the execution of the warrant were two .40-caliber pistols, two .22-caliber pistols, two .12-gauge shotguns, a .38-caliber revolver, a 9mm pistol, a .45-caliber pistol, a .357-caliber revolver, a .38 Special Ultralite revolver, a 5.56-caliber rifle, a .223-caliber rifle and a .45-70 caliber Magnum pistol.
McDaniel is also accused of possessing five other pistols in furtherance of drug trafficking on Nov. 18, 2013.
In addition to those charges, McDaniel is charged with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine in Crittenden County and other areas in eastern Arkansas, possessing less than 28 grams of crack with intent to distribute, using a telephone to facilitate a drug-trafficking conspiracy and possessing less than 500 grams of cocaine and less than 28 grams of crack with intent to distribute. Twenty-eight grams equals slightly less than an ounce, while 500 grams is the equivalent of 17.5 ounces.
In a pretrial hearing shortly after the arrests of McDaniel and his co-defendants, an FBI agent testified that officers with the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force were kept on edge by talk of violence they overheard in many of the thousands of intercepted phone calls between drug-trafficking suspects.
The talk of violent plans, interspersed with coded talk related to drug deals, included plans to engage in a shootout with police in the event of a raid, the agent testified. He said that when officers heard about potential acts of violence planned for a specific day, officers would saturate the area in an attempt to prevent the promised violence. He said officers listening in on wiretapped calls would then hear their targets complaining, “Man, police are everywhere tonight.”
The trial in the Little Rock courtroom of Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller is set to resume at 8:30 a.m. today.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Chris Tarver is representing McDaniel, while the government is being represented by assistant U.S. attorneys Julie Peters and Benecia Moore.