Bust nets cocaine, ecstasy and cash

Tue, 06/26/2007 - 4:44pm
By: Ben Nelms

A June 21 drug reverse by Fayette Sheriff’s Drug Task Force (DTF) undercover agents at Fayette Pavilion landed three Morrow men in jail after they paid $25,000 to purchase a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cocaine. Agents a short time later arrested a Jonesboro couple for selling the psychoactive drug ecstasy.

Charged in the drug reverse were three Morrow residents, including 26-year-old Jose Alberto Laval, 29-year-old Carlos Eugene Senter and 27-year-old Travious Larron Underwood, according to DTF Group Supervisor Jody Thomas.

All three men were charged with criminal intent to traffic in cocaine, Thomas said.

Senter was also charged with obstruction after attempting to elude officers in the Barnes & Noble parking lot and Laval was charged with felony obstruction after running from officers and striking an officer as he was being subdued in the Ruby Tuesday parking lot, Thomas said.

The transaction with undercover DTF agents was supposed to be an exchange of money by the three men for five kilograms of powdered cocaine, said DTF Capt. Mike Pruitt.

But instead of arriving at the Pavilion area with $95,000 prearranged for the purchase, the men had only $25,000 in cash. They wanted to buy only one kilo, Pruitt said. They said they wanted to determine the quality of the product by purchasing one kilo and cooking into crack cocaine before buying the remaining four kilos, said Pruitt.

With their work completed after the drug reverse, DTF agents made arrangements to purchase a quantity of the psychoactive drug ecstasy across Ga. Highway 85 outside Wal-Mart. Arrested in the buy-bust that included 20 ecstasy tablets and two ounces of marijuana were Jonesboro residents Dajan Gray, 24, and Roosevelt Walton, 23, Thomas said.

Ecstasy is one of the names for the synthetic stimulant and hallucinogen MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), also known as Adam, XTC, hug, beans and love drug. A tablet of ecstasy sells for approximately $25, Pruitt said.

DTF agents in both busts were assisted by Fayetteville Police and uniformed sheriff’s deputies.

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