Federal organized crime investigators in Arkansas arrested 45 alleged members of two gangs for drug trafficking and firearms crimes on Wednesday.
The FBI spearheaded two of the three total investigations, targeting the Every Body Killas (EBK) and Loady Murder Mobb gangs, and the alleged violent activities of those groups in the corridor between Pine Bluff and Little Rock, Arkansas. The 45 arrested were part of an indictment naming 80 suspects.
The EBK indictment involves 35 defendants, one of whom is rapper Freddie Gladney III, also known as Bankroll Freddie, while the Loady Murder Mobb indictment involves 26 people, the Justice Department said in a statement.
In the third operation, the Drug Enforcement Administration uncovered the California source of meth and fentanyl being sold by street-level dealers in Arkansas. A total of 18 defendants were indicted in relation to the investigation.
Through wiretaps, “law enforcement discovered that the gangs were funding their violent activity primarily through the sale of large quantities of high-grade marijuana. The investigation revealed drug trafficking and travel between Arkansas and Texas, California, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Oklahoma,” the Justice Department said.
Both agencies were involved in the arrests and sweeps made on Wednesday.
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“We’re all in the business of saving lives and with the 80 indictments from the Eastern District of Arkansas for drugs, crimes related to drugs, weapons, gang activity that’s exactly what we did today,” DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jared Harper said, according to KATV-TV, a Little Rock ABC affiliate.
Before the Wednesday arrests, the FBI had brought in 42 guns, around $775,000 in cash and $428,000 in jewelry, around 278 pounds of marijuana worth around $450,000 in street value, seven ounces of cocaine, three ounces of crack, 1.5 pounds of meth, and 116 fentanyl pills, the Justice Department said. The DEA, meanwhile, had netted 10 guns, 12 pounds of meth, 1.2 kilograms of powdered fentanyl, 600 fentanyl pills, 10 pounds of marijuana, nine ounces of cocaine, and $146,000 in cash.
Authorities are still searching for the 27 other fugitive defendants.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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