Officials: Large-scale bust chokes drug flow into Scott County

Arrest warrants were served in Scott County, Indianapolis, Louisville and Detroit starting at 6 a.m. Friday as part of Operation Dire Straits, an investigation into the drug trafficking activities between June 2015 and Friday which brought large amounts of methamphetamine and Oxymorphone, commonly known as the painkiller Opana, into the community, U.S. District Attorney Josh Minkler said in a press conference in Scottsburg on Friday.

“What we found as a result of Operation Dire Straits was that Scott County was targeted by a criminal organization with the goal of infesting that community with drugs, including Opana and methamphetamine,” he said.

Search warrants have uncovered one pound of methamphetamine, 12 guns, $34,000 and “numerous” Opana pills, which Minkler said can cost as much as $160 per pill on the street.

“They did this for profit,” Minkler said. “For those who profited and who are profiting from selling drugs in this community, I'll call it what it is. It's blood money.”

The federally indicted defendants in the operation, which Minkler said has been “dismantled from top to bottom,” played various roles in the conspiracy.

Rashaan A. Perkins, 21, was operating out of Detroit and is identified as the main supplier of Opana to the organization. Rashawn A. Vaughn, 41, Louisville, was a supplier of methamphetamine and Opana. Scottsburg residents Brooklynn G. Mack, 29, and her boyfriend, Bennito L. Rodriguez, 38, have been identified as trafficking for the organization and Rodriguez is named as one of the leaders.

Also indicted were: Justin M. Roberts, 38, Austin; Eric L. Gude, 36, Indianapolis; Anthony L. Hardy, 39, Indianapolis; James D. Haney, 56, Austin; Travis D, Brock, 34, Scottsburg; and Michael A. Doyle, 38, Scottsburg.

The defendants face 10 years to life imprisonment if convicted.

HEALTH CONCERNS

Minkler said the arrests are a great first step to solving what he calls a public health crisis, but said it will take a community effort to further progress.

“[It] will need to be solved by all of us — federal, state and local public and private communities and individuals and it will need to be solved through prevention and through treatment," he said.

He said the uptick in HIV cases in Scott County is a result of this spike in drug use.

“In 2015, state, local and federal [agencies] noticed a problem in Scott County, specifically Austin, which had turned into a public health crisis — 188 people to date have been diagnosed as HIV-positive,” he said.

He said the cause, in large part, is due to the intravenous injection of Opana.

“Drug addicts would take one Opana pill, divide it into quarters and inject it while sharing the needle,” he said. “The results, as we've seen, have been devastating not just in this community but in the Southern District of Indiana.”

Kevin Rogers, health officer for the Scott County Board of Health, said it's the largest HIV outbreak in the nation.

“Prior to this past year, we had been seeing maybe three cases of HIV over the course of two or three years,” he said. “And then late last winter, early spring we discovered that we had at least initially 150 cases with in a two to three month period that had been diagnosed.”

Attention to these cases is what drew agencies on all levels to investigate where they were stemming from, which ultimately led to Friday's bust. Although officials estimate that the substantial amount of Opana flowing into Scott County has been cut off, there are still smaller individual traffickers the law enforcement agencies are targeting.