St. Tammany News

A 26-year-old Slidell man, thought to be a soldier in an expansive St. Tammany drug ring whose ties to Columbian drug cartels flooded St. Tammany with cocaine, faces life in prison after pleading guilty Friday in federal court.

At a minimum, Edwin Jubencio Salinas will serve no less than 10 years in prison, pay a $4 million fine and serve five years of supervised probation following his release from prison, according to U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. Salinas was one of six indicted by a New Orleans grand jury in May and 25 ultimately arrested as part of Operation Arch Angel, a year-long investigation that busted the drug nest with ties to Columbian and Mexican drug cartels, authorities said.

"It was the most extensive drug network in St. Tammany Parish," Sheriff Jack Strain said at the time.

Based on cell phone wiretaps, FBI agents and St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Office deputies learned the network orchestrated numerous narcotic deals between December 2006 and January 2007, transporting truck loads of drugs to St. Tammany from a cocaine supplier in Houston.

The ring also staked out the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's narcotic office in John Slidell Park, conducting counter survelliance on its investigators, Letten said.

Based on the previous wiretaps, Salinas and two cohorts, his brother-in-law Gabriel Juron Bolden, a member of the U.S. military, and Charles Eugen Prewitt of Collins, Miss., were arrested at 3 a.m. Feb. 19 after returning home from a drug deal in Houston.

FBI agents and St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office deputies staked out Bolden's Slidell area home, waiting in the shadows. When Prewitt pulled his truck into Bolden's Slidell area home his truck's cargo bed and hidden compartment were filled with three kilograms of cocaine and 100 pounds of marijuana.

All three were arrested, leading to undercover agents infiltrating the rest of the network, setting up drug deals numerous times, Letten said.

Evidence mounted, and in August last year, when suspects were "groggy and just waking up," 50 Sheriff's Office deputies and FBI agents split into five teams raiding the homes of 27 targets, 25 of which were arrested, Strain said.

The diversity of the subjects, white, black, male, female, ages 25 to 46, with occupations from truck drivers to enlisted military servicemen, represent a larger trend in specialized business minded drug dealers than those associated with gangs, Letten said.

"The one common trend was distribution of cocaine ... sometimes drugs beget strange bedfellows," FBI Special Agent in Charge Jim Bernazanni said at the time.

Salinas on Friday pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute between 15 and 50 kilograms of cocaine and distributing more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana at some point before July 25, 2006, and his arrest in February 2007, Letten said.

Salinas' co-defendants, Bolden and Prewitt, also entered guilty pleas in connection with the conspiracy. In addition, Dorian Tyrone Hart and Bruce Carter Jr, also of Slidell, have pleaded guilty, Letten said. Their particular involvement was not known as of press time.