DRUG RING SENDS MAN TO PRISON 27 YEARS

A Pensacola businessman who was the main player in a drug ring stretching
from Texas to Florida was sentenced Tuesday to 27 years in federal prison.

Frank Yonker, 46, also was ordered by Chief U.S. District Judge Roger
Vinson to spend five years on supervised release and pay $1,300 in fines.

Yonker pleaded guilty Nov. 21 to conspiring to distribute more than five
kilograms - about 11 pounds - of cocaine and marijuana and to possessing a
firearm.

Vinson said the evidence against Yonker is significant and took into
account a threat Yonker made against a federal Drug Enforcement
Administration agent and his teen-age daughter.

"One of the most serious things you can do is to threaten or attempt to
threaten or intimidate the law enforcement officer who was the agent on the
case," Vinson said.

Yonker told two other men, Keith Gonzalez and Thomas Groover, who are
charged in the conspiracy, that he knew where the agent's daughter lived
and went to school, and he had people "on the outside" who owed him favors.

The men told their defense attorneys, who called the DEA.

Yonker told Vinson the comments were a "bad joke."

For two years, federal agents used wiretaps, video surveillance,
electronic-tracking devices and confidential informants to piece together
the case.

As far back as 1996, Yonker got large amounts of cocaine and marijuana from
different sources, including a man in Austin, Texas.

Yonker generally traveled to Texas to get 1 to 1 1/2 kilograms of cocaine
and distribute it in Northwest Florida. Gonzalez, of Niceville, traded
Yonker marijuana for cocaine. Gonzalez is also charged in the conspiracy.

When officers last year raided Yonker's business, American Pizza Products
on Bridget Lane, they seized 7 pounds of cocaine and $70,000 in cash.

Other co-defendants in the conspiracy are scheduled to be sentenced this week.