(Indianapolis, IN) - 12 people are now facing federal charges as part of what authorities are calling a major drug ring operated out of Westville Correctional Facility.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, a Westville inmate, 37-year-old Justin Veal of Indianapolis, led a drug?trafficking organization responsible for distributing hundreds of pounds of illegal narcotics across the state. “At Veal’s direction,” prosecutors said, “co?conspirators Sade Butler of Indianapolis and Shawnlisa Nevels of Fort Wayne obtained methamphetamine, cocaine, Suboxone, and fentanyl from various suppliers and distributed the drugs to customers in Anderson, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and several other Indiana communities.” Nine other suspects were also listed in the federal indictment.
The charges follow a months-long investigation led by the Crossroads of America Homeland Security Task Force, which resulted in the seizure of the following contraband and proceeds of criminal activity:
- 13 firearms, including select-fire weapons with drum magazines
- 130 pounds of methamphetamine
- 550 grams of cocaine
- 241 grams of fentanyl
- 25 Suboxone Strips
- 1750 grams of synthetic cannabinoid (“spice”)
- Several thousand counterfeit fentanyl pills
- Heroin
- Cash
- A pill press with drug residue
- High-value jewelry
- 15 cell phones
- 2 vehicles
The Homeland Security Task Force is a multi-agency partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.
