Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

DOJ seal

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney's Office
Middle District of Florida
Roger B. Handberg, United States Attorney
www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl
For Immediate Release
Thursday, July 20, 2023

Seventeen Charged in Multi-State Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Conspiracy

Ocala, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the return of a superseding indictment charging 17 individuals with a drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy as a result of a joint investigation. Two of the defendants have also been charged with two additional counts of distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute methamphetamine. 

According to court records, over the course of the past six years, the Drug Enforcement Administration has been involved in an investigation into a drug trafficking organization (DTO) that operates largely out of Lake County, Florida, with sources of supply or distributors in California, Texas, the eastern United States, and China. The Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) has investigated the laundering of drug proceeds by the DTO.

Since at least 2017, the DTO (led by Dudzinski Poole) has been responsible for trafficking thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine and fentanyl via commercial planes, trains, and the mail. So far, DEA has seized more than 250 pounds of drugs (mostly methamphetamine and fentanyl). The defendants played various roles in the DTO, such as suppliers, distributors, couriers, and courier coordinators. Each defendant is also charged with money laundering conspiracy. See defendant chart for details.

Multi-State Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Conspiracy

Defendant Chart

Name (Age, Residence)

Charges

Potential Penalties

Dudzinski Edwinn Poole

a/k/a “Zink”

(48, Apopka, FL)

Possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine

(two counts)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Melvin Tyrone Patterson, Jr.

a/k/a “Goon”

(31, Wildwood, FL)

Possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine (two counts)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Andrew Woodruff, Jr.

a/k/a “Smurf”

(38, Mount Dora, FL)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Jose Ivan Carbajal

a/k/a “Primo”

(33, California)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Diego Navarro- Martinez

a/k/a “Shooter”

(32, California)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Michael Andre Chester

a/k/a “Dre”

(48, Apopka, FL)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Samantha Tiesha King

a/k/a “Mamp”

(32, Altamonte Springs, FL)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Felisha Denise Williams

a/k/a “Lil Momma”

(34, Apopka, FL)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Rodrieka Lashay Manning

a/k/a “Drieka”

(25, Apopka, FL)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Janice Denise Anderson

a/k/a “Butter”

(65, Mount Dora, FL)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Oveda Denise Miller

a/k/a “Gangsta Granny”

(60, Mount Dora, FL)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Roland Richardson

(63, Mount Dora, FL)

 

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Latonya Sharee Conley

a/k/a “Hershey”

(46, Mount Dora, FL)

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

George Nelvin King, Jr.

(46, Altamonte Springs, FL)

 

Drug trafficking conspiracy

Money laundering conspiracy

Mandatory minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

The DTO has operated largely through the use of couriers who fly to California from Florida with large sums of cash to purchase drugs and transport checked luggage full of drugs back to Florida on commercial flights. These flights were typically between the Orlando International Airport (MCO) in Florida and the Palm Springs Airport (PSP) or the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in California. Flight records during a two-year period show more than 350 flights between California and Orlando among the various conspirators.

The DTO also used couriers to transport large amounts of methamphetamine from Orlando to Virginia via train. In April 2022, one of these couriers was arrested at a train station in Virginia with approximately 10 pounds of methamphetamine inside a suitcase.

In addition to transporting drugs on commercial flights and trains, Poole and his associates had multiple stash houses and received hundreds of mailed packages of methamphetamine from California and other drugs, including fentanyl, from China. Poole’s source of supply in California would ship packages containing anywhere from one pound to ten or more pounds of methamphetamine at a time. Poole would provide the source of supply various addresses to ship the drugs, including co-conspirators’ residences. Investigators have identified almost 400 packages that were shipped from California as part of this conspiracy from 2021 to 2023.

The members of this DTO also conspired with one another to engage in money laundering. A key aspect of this conspiracy was Poole’s development of an entertainment business that he used to promote concerts with legitimate artists, whom he paid with drug proceeds. Poole then commingled the profits from the ticket sales with the drug proceeds in the same business account. Members of the conspiracy also used drug proceeds to pay for various expenses of the DTO, and they engaged in other financial transactions to conceal the drug proceeds. 

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the United States Secret Service; the Orlando Police Department’s Special Enforcement Division and Crime Center and Forensics Division; the Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s Gang Enforcement Unit; the Florida Highway Patrol; the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office; the Casselberry Police Department; the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation; the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office; the Marion County Sheriff’s Office; the Kissimmee Police Department; the St. Cloud Police Department; the Winter Park Police Department, and the St. Cloud IRS Financial Crimes Task Force. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Tyrie K. Boyer and Belkis H. Crockett.

ATF.gov

An official website of the U.S. Department of Justice

Looking for U.S. government information and services?
Visit USA.gov