Louisiana
11 indicted in two-year federal, local investigation into Central Louisiana drug cartel operations
VERNON PARISH, La. (KALB) – Federal officials announced on February 9 that eleven people were indicted on ten counts of “Conspiracy to Possess a Controlled substance with Intent to Distribute” and two counts of “Unlawful Use of a Communication Facility” in connection with an alleged drug trafficking ring that operated across several Central Louisiana parishes, prominently based in Vernon Parish.
Those indicted individuals are:
- Detrail Harris
- Kameron Harris
- Barry Pearson
- Frank Coleman, Jr.
- Earl “Nook” Thompson
- Micheal Womack
- Sevesta Sweet
- Charles Jackson
- Andrew Bulloch
- Craig Hopkins
- Buford “Dog Pound” Sawyer
The indictment follows a nearly two-year investigation originally initiated by the Vernon Parish Sheriff’s Office and later assisted by these other agencies:
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
- Rapides Area Drug Enforcement Unit (RADE)
- Department of Justice
- Leesville Police Department
- Alexandria Police Department
- Louisiana State Police
- Sabine Parish Sheriff’s Office
- Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Office
- United States Marshall
- Pineville Police Department
- U.S. Forestry Service
- Army Criminal Division
- Criminal Investigations, FBI New Orleans
- Texas law enforcement
Right: Logos of Agencies involved(KALB)
Officials confirm law enforcement seized, through a search warrant, a total of one kilogram of cocaine, 25 pounds of meth, 2,000 fentanyl pills, $125,000 in cash and various gold bars. When questioned on the believed “street value” of the contraband, officials stated they could not create an estimate due to the unknown concentration of fentanyl within the substances.
According to court documents, law enforcement believes the alleged contraband distribution conspiracy began no later than July 11, 2024, and continued through to November 2, 2025, and ranged from the Central Louisiana region and spanning as far south as Lafayette.
“We know that those pills were going to be distributed throughout Central and South Louisiana. At a certain stage of this investigation, we executed search warrants on some of the residences of some of these alleged ‘DTO’ members, and we found those pills and we knew that from our intelligence gathering that those pills were going to be distributed between South and Lafayette, the Broussard area of Louisiana, all the way up to Central Louisiana.”
During a press conference, federal officials stated they believe the alleged ring was directly involved with South and Central American drug rings, directly naming the criminal “Gulf Cartel.”
“Intelligence led us to one neighborhood gang here that used the Gulf Cartel as its supplier of deadly, illegal drugs,” said Jonathan Tapp, a special agent for the FBI office based in New Orleans. “We will fight the influence of these foreign organizations, and we will not let them gain a foothold in central Louisiana…We will combat them at their points of origin, at the border, and in our local communities.”
An executive order passed by President Donald Trump in January 2025 labeled organizations such as the Gulf Cartel as terroristic and paved the way for the formation of the U.S. Homeland Security Task Force, a key proponent for the investigation.
“That task force was tasked with bringing the full investigative and prosecutorial resources of the United States to combat the influence of these foreign cartels,” Murphy explained.
“Mexican drug cartels and violent gangs don’t limit their activity to the big cities, but you can be sure that we are focused on these drug cartels and violent gangs wherever they are operating all over the country and the world.”
Involved sheriffs such as Rapides Parish’s Mark Wood, Vernon’s Sam Craft and Grant’s Steven McCain all emphasized the importance of having both state, local and federal officials involved in the investigation, labeling it as ‘extraordinary.’
“I’m hoping that the public will see the combined efforts of multiple agencies being involved in what it can do when everybody works together,” Craft said.
View the full indictment below:
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That pageant feeds into the Miss Louisiana pageant, which is part of the Miss America system. The winner of Miss Louisiana Saturday night will move on to the Miss America pageant.
Addison’s pageant platform is encouraging girls to build confidence in themselves — Confidence to Career, Jackson said.
“She competed last night for the preliminary in talent and on stage question and will compete tonight in beauty and fitness,” Jackson said.
On Saturday at the beginning of the pageant, the field will be cut to 11 contestants, and then the top five.
“One of the top five will get a crown,” Jackson said.
The preliminary competitions and the pageant will be streamed on MissLouisiana.com and the Saturday pageant will be broadcast live on KNOE-TV.
“They let me see her for five minutes yesterday,” she said. “This is the experience of a lifetime. She is making friendships and relationships that will last a lifetime. We are so proud of her. Addison is such a sweet girl.”
She is the youngest of three sisters, Allison and Anna Claire Jackson.
Angela said her husband, Craig Jackson, is particularly excited and proud of all three of his daughters.
“He’s a great girl dad,” she said. “They think he hung the moon, and he did.”
Louisiana
After redistricting battles, Southern gathers for Juneteenth celebration: ‘Continue the fight’
Hundreds of community members, alumni and students gathered Thursday to observe Juneteenth on the Southern University campus in Baton Rouge.
The theme of the festivities was “celebrating freedom through culture and community,” but weeks after Louisiana’s bitter redistricting battles, the speakers Thursday morning had one message driving their remarks: Get out and vote.
“Freedom does not come in on the wheels of inevitability,” Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice John Michael Guidry said to the crowd. “But it takes the prodigious work and the tireless efforts of those who are willing to continue the fight.”
Great Beginnings summer camper Myni, 4, gets a hello kitty face painting during Southern’s Juneteenth celebration on Thursday, June 18, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staff photo by Michael Johnson
The speech kicked off a day of discussions and cultural events centered on the holiday of Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger brought news of emancipation to enslaved people in Texas more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
Speakers at Southern emphasized the need for protection of hard-won rights for Black Americans in the context of redistricting. The sentiments followed a contentious state legislative session that ended with the elimination of one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
“That Voting Rights Act is under attack,” Guidry said. “There’s voter intimidation, there’s voter suppression, there are voter ID laws and all types of laws and legal decisions that are trying to deny us our right to vote, and we are the ones who have to go forward and litigate these issues.”
The day opened with a libation ceremony and a rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Southern University student Claire Floyd.
Southern University alumnus Jeanet Cazenave said she felt it was important to celebrate Juneteenth on campus as not only a relative of the first dean of Southern University but also a descendant of the GU272, a group of enslaved individuals who were sold to plantations in Louisiana in 1838 by Jesuit priests to pay the debts of what is now Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Juneteenth “means everything,” Cazenave said. “It means the past, the present and the future.”
BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — Governor Landry has officially declared Louisiana under state of emergency.
The state emergency declaration covers Avoyelles, Lafourche, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, St. Tammany and Terrebonne parishes.
The declaration was issued Thursday following the impacts of Tropical Storm Arthur, which brough rainfall and strong storms to parts of the state on June 17 and 18.
Officials said the National Weather Service has confirmed three tornadoes tied to the storm system.
Officials also reported record or near-record rainfall totals in Avoyelles and Pointe Coupee parishes over a 12-hour period.
The order allows the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to coordinate resources and provide assistance to local governments if needed.
Certain state purchasing and bidding requirements have been temporarily suspended to speed up emergency response efforts.
The declaration took effect immediately and will remain in place through July 18 unless it is lifted or extended.
State officials are urging residents to stay weather aware, avoid flooded roadways and follow guidance from local emergency managers.
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