Drugs worth millions netted

 

kcrawford@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6242

FLINT - The "bricks" of drugs and stacks of money - in piles of $20, $50 and $100 bills - covered the table before Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell.

"We're talking about a total value of $2.6 or $2.7 million," he said about the cocaine and cash seized Saturday by his department's county-local drug unit, "the Posse," and Flint police.

Pickell called the seizure of $600,000 to $700,000 "the largest cash seizure in Genesee County" in a drug investigation.

Two men, Deshawn M. Howard, 33, of Flint Township and Jorge E. Viramontes, 42, a Mexican national from California, are in the Genesee County Jail in connection with the weekend bust.

In a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, FBI Agent Jason D. Grende said the men conspired to possess more than 5 kilograms of cocaine with intent to distribute it.

At an initial hearing before Magistrate Judge Steven D. Pepe, the men were ordered held until an examination Wednesday.

Pickell said the case was heard in federal court because of the amount of money and drugs involved and because of tougher penalties.

He said investigators seized more than $600,000 in cash and broke up the delivery of 10 kilograms of cocaine.

According to the complaint sworn by FBI Agent Jason Grende, nine of the kilos were recovered, five when Howard threw them out of his car as he drove through Flint pursued by police. Another four were found in Howard's car after he abandoned it and ran to a house on Page Street near Root Street.

Howard was arrested there, while Viramontes was arrested at a house at 1902 Sloan St. on Flint's west side, where the incident began Saturday night, Pickell said. More than $600,000 in cash was seized at that house, with another $26,000 confiscated at Howard's house in Flint Township, he said.

Pickell said Posse investigators got a tip that drugs were going to be moved from the Sloan Street house Saturday.

Officers began surveillance and asked Flint police to be ready to stop individuals leaving that address.

After a couple of hours, Howard left, accompanied to his car by Viramontes, the FBI alleged. Pickell said that when Flint Officers Darren Lopez and Brett Cassidy tried to pull the car over, Howard led them on a chase, throwing the packages of cocaine out of his window.

Pickell said his investigators then got search warrants and went back to the house on Sloan, where Viramontes was arrested, and to Howard's house in Flint Township.

According to the federal complaint, Viramontes told officers that the money in the house was part of the payment given by Howard for 10 kilograms of cocaine and for a prior cocaine purchase.

Viramontes also said he was employed by people in California "to travel to Flint to count and package the drug money and facilitate the transportation of the money back to California," according to the complaint.

"The police work in this case was great, but the sad thing of it is, this is just probably a drop in the bucket of the drugs that are coming into the Flint area," said Pickell.

His investigators estimated the 10 kilograms of cocaine Howard allegedly was purchasing probably represented about one month's supply for his particular operation.

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