A joint local and federal investigation that has been touted as the biggest drug operation in Howard County’s history recently netted its first sentencing, placing a Georgia-based hitman behind bars for three-and-a-half decades.
It marks the beginning of what both Howard County and federal officials hope will eventually become a windfall of successful cases against defendants they say comprised a hefty drug trafficking ring that stretched from the Deep South into Kokomo.
The overarching investigation, which has continued with Operation Law and Order Part 2 and the arrests of dozens of meth users and dealers, even stretches into the western United States, where at least one distributor has been arrested in Las Vegas.
But that fight against Howard County’s pervasive drug epidemic has now partly relocated to a series of courtrooms.
The first to fall, Sirajuddin Abdul Qadir, traveled to Kokomo to help kill a confidential informant, and was sentenced last week to 35 years in the Indiana Department of Correction.
Qadir had previously been found guilty during a bench trial in Howard Superior Court 2 of attempted murder, a Level 1 felony, and conspiracy to commit murder, Level 2 felony. The conspiracy count was vacated in the sentencing order.
The hitman’s time in jail won’t be cheap, noted Superior Court 2 Judge Brant Parry in the order.
The DOC, he explained, “estimates that it currently costs an average of $53.96 per day to house an adult inmate at the Indiana [DOC].” That means a sentence of 35 years will likely cost nearly $700,000.
Police were tipped off to a possible arranged murder-for-hire in March, after federal authorities installed a wiretap on numerous phones with connections to alleged local drug dealer Reggie Balentine.
Authorities said during a press conference in May that Balentine is believed to be the head of a local drug organization that received its illicit products from a supplier, Pierre Riley, in Macon, Georgia.
Court documents allege that Balentine’s right-hand man, Michael O’Bannon, was the victim of a drug robbery in March, citing police-intercepted cellphone calls. O’Bannon held the occupants of the residence that was robbed accountable for the robbery.
Riley then sent two hitmen, Qadir and Jamil Williamson, to Kokomo to murder the person they held responsible for the robbery – a confidential informant. Police believe 47-year-old Cynthia Foster, Qadir’s girlfriend, drove them to Kokomo.
Foster was later arrested, in Decatur, Georgia, in early June, on her own warrant for conspiracy to commit murder. She was then transported to the Howard County Jail, where she remains on a $60,000 bond.
A plea/potential sentencing hearing for Foster is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 11 in Howard Superior Court 2.
At one point on March 2, a group of three — Qadir, Williamson and O’Bannon — left Kokomo’s Quality Inn to stake out the home of the intended target, according to court documents. Unknown to the would-be-killers, police were surveilling the house to keep the target safe.
The suspects left the neighborhood after circling the block numerous times in O’Bannon’s car. Police pulled over the car near the hotel, and discovered a loaded firearm in the vehicle.
During a search of all three suspects, police found a room key to the inn and some cash believed to be in exchange for the hit.
Later, Foster gave written consent for police to search the hotel room the out-of-towners were inhabiting, where officers found two semi-automatic handguns. She would soon disappear, even disconnecting her phone, after an initial interview with police that day.
Ultimately, Qadir and Williamson, along with Foster, would be charged locally for their involvement in the planned hit, which authorities believe was in exchange for $10,000.
Williamson, 34, also resides in the Howard County Jail, with a jury trial on charges of attempt to commit murder and conspiracy to commit murder scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Oct. 30 in Howard Superior Court 2.
His bond, after the dismissal of a felony firearm possession charge, sits at $60,000, no 10 percent allowed. Notably, a request by Williamson and his attorney, Stephanie Doran, for change of venue out of Howard County was denied in late July.
Also underway are the federal court cases against the dealers and drug-runners that law enforcement personnel say supplied a significant portion of Kokomo’s drug market.
In early May, a mix of local officials and federal law enforcement announced in a press conference the results of Operation Law and Order’s first phase.
A citizen tip ultimately set into motion a drug investigation that culminated in around 130 local and federal law enforcement officers conducting multiple raids in the early morning hours of May 1, dismantling an alleged drug and firearms ring with ties to criminal activity in Georgia.
Fifteen people, most of them Kokomo residents, now face federal charges following the multi-agency, four-month-long investigation – which involved phone wiretaps and remote cameras.
Starting at 6:05 a.m. May 1, federal agents from multiple agencies, alongside local law enforcement, executed warrants at 13 locations across Kokomo and Macon, Georgia.
Officers ultimately seized more than 17 pounds of meth, two pounds of cocaine, two ounces of heroin, 122 grams of Fentanyl, six ounces of marijuana, two money counters, 12 vehicles, $37,000 in drug money and 24 firearms – including a sniper rifle and two assault rifles.
During a press conference held at City Hall the next day, U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler outlined the structure of the alleged drug ring – which he referred to as a “violent drug trafficking organization.” He insisted that, upon convictions, harsh sentences will be sought, due to repeat offenses.
“These guys will not be getting back on the streets. They are going to be prosecuted, and we are going to seek harsh consequences that are available to us in federal court,” he said.
To operate the local drug ring, the 41-year-old Balentine allegedly obtained drugs from 50-year-old Riley – the supplier from Georgia – and distributed them throughout the Kokomo area. Balentine was accompanied by two people referred to as “lieutenants" – O’Bannon, or “Lunchy,” 34, and Perry Jones, 43.
A trial for the defendants is set for June 3, 2019, in a federal courthouse in Indianapolis.
O’Bannon, as part of a second superseding indictment in the case, was hit with a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. Facing potential life imprisonment, he has pleaded not guilty to the indictment, filed in the Southern District of Indiana.
Court documents also show, in relation to Minkler’s statements, that O’Bannon has been convicted in two previous felony drug cases. In 2011, he was convicted of felony cocaine dealing in Howard County; in 2015, he was convicted of felony possession of a narcotic drug, again in Howard County.
His boss, Balentine, is also facing possible life imprisonment for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances; distribution of controlled substance; and felon in possession of a firearm.
In 1997, and again in 2011, Balentine, or “Pudge,” was convicted on felony cocaine dealing charges in Howard County. He has pleaded not guilty to his most recent charges.
Riley, who will be detained pending the case’s trial, joins the two staring down the barrel of life imprisonment, on a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute. His sentencing, like the others, will likely be affected by a history of felony drug convictions.
In 1991, Riley was convicted of dealing cocaine in Howard County; in 2001, he bumped his charge up to conspiracy to commit dealing in cocaine, this time in Grant County.