Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/256534
The department held a Feb. 4 news confer- ence to reveal the results of the investigation. Ledwith estimated the 12 kilos (26.4 pounds) of powder cocaine was worth about $500,000 wholesale, with a retail value on the street of $1 million. He also said the seizure represented "one week's supply." Assuming Ledwith's cost and supply estimates are correct, that cocaine network represented about a $50 million per year retail industry in Sarasota. Six of Hawks' and Shannon's alleged con- federates have prior criminal histories, with charges including fraud, robbery, aggravated battery, burglary, weapons counts, fleeing to elude, crack cocaine sales within 1,000 feet of public housing and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. Two others charged did not have prior criminal histories. All were A f r i c a n - A m e r i c a n m a l e s b e t w e e n t h e ages of 26 and 44. A Miami-based supplier was also rolled up in the investigation. Alex Hernando Gomez, a 46-year-old Hispanic male, is accused of con- spiracy to traffic more than 400 grams (roughly one pound) of cocaine. "Intercepted phone calls and multiple forms of investigative sur- veillance have revealed the defendant selling kilogram quantities of cocaine to his buyers, Almuta Hawks and Roderick Shannon," says Gomez' probable cause affidavit. "Based on this investigation, the defendant is a signifi- cant source of cocaine supply in the Sarasota/ Manatee County area." A senior investigator told The Sarasota News Leader the investigation did not actually tap any wires. "It was cellphone intercepts," the officer said. The Tampa office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) provided assistance. The residence at 2412 Pershing Ave. in Sarasota, near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way, reportedly was the scene of local cocaine sales. Image from Google Maps Sarasota News Leader February 7, 2014 Page 48