FBI NEWS RELEASE

New Orleans Field Office

Jim Letten, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Louis M. Reigel, III, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New Orleans Division, and New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Edwin P. Compass III announced today the indictment by a Federal Grand Jury of seventeen individuals for violations of the Federal Controlled Dangerous Substances Act, Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841, 843 and 846. The defendants charged in the indictment are ELTON RILEY a/k/a "El", "Pimp", Age 31, JULES GETTRIDGE a/k/a "Frog", Age 31, JARETTE MATHIEU a/k/a "Dump", Age 31, GAYNEIL SIMMS a/k/a "Gator", Age 35, BRIAN FRANK, a/k/a "Rat", "Ratmouth", Age 30, MELVIN GASPER, a/k/a "Fish", Age 46, MICHAEL HARRIS a/k/a "Twin", Age 21, JOHNNY MCDONALD, Age 30, RUSSELL WASHINGTON a/k/a "Gravy", Age 28, ROBERT THOMAS, Age 27, TYRONNE WARD, a/k/a "Tidy", Age 31, MICHAEL BROCK, Age 39, LOUIS BROWN, Age 29, RONNIE WILLIAMS, Age 30, CHARLES STEWART, Age 29, DAN RILEY a/k/a "Lil Dan", Age 24, and WALTER DAVIS, Age 35. In addition to the aforementioned charges, defendant RILEY is charged in the indictment with one count of Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 922(g)(1).

The charges were brought as a result of a long-term joint investigation by the New Orleans Police Department's Fifth District Narcotics Investigations Unit and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New Orleans Gang Task Force into narcotics distribution in and around the Florida Housing Development. The year-long investigation conducted by both federal and local authorities revealed an extensive cocaine conspiracy in the greater New Orleans area involving multiple kilograms of both cocaine hydrochloride and cocaine base (crack). The investigation successfully ferreted out narcotics traffickers, dealers and individuals who converted cocaine hydrochloride (powder) to cocaine base (crack) for the other members of the conspiracy.

U. S. Attorney Jim Letten said, "This important indictment of these seventeen (17) defendants who were investigated, charged and arrested under the Department's Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) mission to reduce violence, is yet another significant attack upon the dangerous and destructive drug trade and its cycle of violence in the New Orleans area. This indictment is truly a classic PSN case, and, together with last week's indictment of Michael Dillon and the previous week's indictment of Corey Juluke, Mark Ross, Courtney Jones, Sheldon Roberts, Jose Manuel Barreto, and John Melvin Gage, is calculated and expected to exert increasing pressure upon and deliver a significant blow to drug distribution in and around the Florida Housing Development and the Fifth District. The Florida Housing Development, which has been a drug distribution and violent hot spot is, I submit, less dangerous and more habitable today, although the battle is far from over. We in federal law enforcement, in partnership with our brethren in the New Orleans Police Department and other participating agencies, will relentlessly keep up and even increase our pressure upon drug distributors and dangerous individuals in the quest to protect our citizens."

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment with a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years imprisonment, a fine of up to $4 million, at least five years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Stephen Huber and Brian Marcelle.