LABOR CAMP SUPERVISOR ADMITS DRUG CONSPIRACY

Ronald Evans Jr. pleads guilty to supplying crack cocaine for workers.

Ronald Evans Jr.'s primary role on his father's labor camps was to
supervise workers on the farms.

But it's one of his other job duties -- he's admitted making sure
longtime employees "had a supply of crack cocaine to sell to the
workers" -- that will land him in federal prison.

Evans Jr., 32, pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge in federal
court Wednesday. His attorney, A. Russell Smith, declined comment
after the hearing.

Ronald Evans Sr., 58, and his wife, Jequita, 45, are also charged,
but Evans Jr.'s plea does not require him to cooperate with the
government's case against the other two.

All three family members are facing between 10 years and life in prison.

Evans Jr. was the only one of the three to plead guilty by
Wednesday's court-imposed deadline, meaning Evans Sr. and his wife
will face a trial in August. Prosecutors, though, plan to upgrade the
charges against Evans Sr., saying he ran a "continuing criminal
enterprise," which carries a mandatory life sentence if convicted.

"The client's consistent position is that he and his wife are not
guilty," said William Kent, Evans Sr.'s attorney.

Evans Jr. admitted in federal court Wednesday to making sure the
supply of cocaine was available, beginning in 2001 when he went to
work full time for his dad.

Three others have pleaded guilty to their role in the scheme and two
more have been fugitives for about a year.

When authorities raided the East Palatka camp last summer, they found
148 individually wrapped crack cocaine rocks, about 20 cases of beer
and dozens of cartons of cigarettes. After a day's work, laborers
could buy marked-up crack, beer and cigarettes on credit from an
on-camp store and Evans Sr.'s trusted employees would keep the books
so debt could be deducted at the end of the week, court records show.

Laborers stayed in Northeast Florida from about December to June,
cutting cabbage and grading potatoes. After June, they'd head up to
work on sweet potato and vegetable farms in Newton Grove, N.C., about
45 miles southeast of Raleigh. Evans Jr. ran the North Carolina camp,
court records show.