DRUG PROBE NETS BOUNTY OF GOODS

Scales, Refrigerator, $9,000 Among Items Seized In Raids

Federal agents hauled off an array of items used to snort, weigh and smoke
cocaine, including sifters and scales.

They got dozens of plastic bags containing traces of the drug.

They took photographs that had been posted on one man's refrigerator,
nearly $9,000 that another man had stowed away in a safe, address books
from several homes and a firearm.

The agents walked out with a bounty when they searched 11 locations in the
Pensacola area as the "Operation Sandshaker" investigation into local
cocaine trafficking came to a head Dec. 8-9.

Forty-one people have been charged as participants in what prosecutors
called an "entrenched" ring of dealers and users. Eight people have pleaded
guilty in federal court.

The properties searched included:

The Sandshaker Lounge and Package Store on Pensacola Beach.

A pair of homes each valued at more than $400,000.

Two local condominium units.

More than a week after most of the arrests took place, details are slowly
being released about the scope of the three-year investigation and what was
uncovered as authorities intensified their pursuit of evidence.

On Thursday, 10 days after U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers approved
search warrants for the properties, agents submitted a detailed inventory
of what they seized and where they found it.

Not included in those reports are the suspects' 41 vehicles that remain
locked up at the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, and four properties that
the government also is seeking.

As part of plea agreements with the government, the eight who have pleaded
guilty have acknowledged that they might be required to turn over any
assets used "to facilitate illegal drug activities" or anything that
represents proceeds from the drug conspiracy.

"We would not, and have not, walked away from any forfeitable asset," said
Assistant U.S. Attorney Len Register.

Searching Homes

Soon after Rogers signed the search warrants on the afternoon of Dec. 8,
agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the Escambia
County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began
serving them.

Jeff Cary, who has pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge, was home
when agents entered his house on Gonzalez Street that evening.

In fact, they confiscated $685 out of the 47-year-old bartender's pockets.

They found cocaine on Cary's couch, a crack pipe and a straw covered in
cocaine residue on his living room table. They also found at least nine
packages containing smaller plastic bags in spots throughout his home.

Similar items were discovered in the Panferio Drive home of Mitchell
"Jackie" Seale III, 50, whom prosecutors have painted as the kingpin of the
operation.

Agents seized plastic bags full of cocaine as well as pill bottles and
capsules that had been emptied.

They also took computer equipment, financial records and credit card
statements, plus the photos posted in a kitchen.

At the Sandshaker, they seized boxes of receipt tapes and accounting records.

But at the home of the bar's owner, Linda Murphy, they found more clear
evidence of drug activity - a plastic bag and a straw with cocaine residue
in the 51-year-old mother's pocket, 11 straws with traces of the drug
stored in a bedroom closet, plastic bags covered in drug residue scattered
around the house, and cocaine and an unspecified amount of cash locked in a
safe.

Agents also seized a shipment of 30 Sandshaker T-shirts.

Inside the South Harbor condominium unit rented by Edith and Kevin Mason,
the agents confiscated marijuana hidden in a sunglasses case and
methamphetamine stashed inside a purse.

Marijuana, hydrocodone and Xanax, along with a handgun and ammunition, were
seized from the Milton home of Dana Powell, a licensed mental health
counselor who works at a downtown Pensacola practice.

At the Maldonado Drive home shared by suspects James Allen King and James
Robert Grimes, snorting devices found on the bathroom tub, $8,900 from a
safe, and plates covered in cocaine residue were seized.

Vehicles, Property

Among the 41 vehicles seized by the DEA is a 2003 black Hummer, taken from
the driveway of plumbing contractor Casey Hyman, 44, when agents searched
his home on Abbie Elizabeth Court in Gulf Breeze. The vehicle carries a
price tag of almost $50,000.

Register said the federal government likely will seek forfeiture of the
vehicle, along with possibly a handful of the other vehicles that were seized.

"The DEA looks at which of the vehicles have enough equity in them to make
pursuing them worthwhile," he said. "If there is a huge lien on the car
that far exceeds its value, it just doesn't make sense."

The rest of the vehicles will be turned over to state and local authorities.

In addition to vehicles, the federal government is seeking the forfeiture
of four pieces of property - the Sandshaker, the Murphys' home, Cary's home
and a unit at Emerald Isle Resort Condominium owned by suspect Scott Carstens.

All four locations, prosecutors have said, were used to store and
distribute cocaine or to further the drug conspiracy.

Because Linda and Robert Murphy and Cary have pleaded guilty, the seizure
of their properties is almost assured.

Register said a final order of forfeiture likely will be handed down at
their sentencings.

The U.S. Marshals Service would be directed by the court to liquidate the
holdings in any way the agency deems "commercially reasonable."

"It may be by public auction or through a Realtor," Register said. "That
will be done at the Marshals Service's discretion."

Included among the Sandshaker's assets is all furniture, contract rights
and accounts, and its state liquor license, valued at $1,820 per year.

Register said the government likely will auction off all such holdings