OFFICERS SQUASH TOP DRUG RING

PANAMA CITY -- Authorities say they have made north Florida's largest
cocaine seizure - 231 pounds - and obtained guilty pleas from 12 suspects.

Investigators suspect the drug ring used a mobile home to smuggle 3,500
pounds of cocaine worth millions of dollars into the Florida Panhandle from
El Paso, Texas, over the last two years, Bay County Sheriff Guy Tunnell
said Friday.

Texas, Florida, federal and local law enforcement officials seized the 231
pounds between May and August, most of it in Bay County, as well as 40
vehicles.

Investigators in Bay County also seized 794 tablets of Ecstasy, $10,000
worth of firearms, $210,000 in cash and $100,000 in electronics.

"This was the top of the pyramid. These people weren't down on the
streets," said sheriff's investigator Tony Walker.

Alleged ringleader Chedric Gadson, 29, is facing a life sentence after
pleading guilty to conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and marijuana. Seven of
the other defendants also could get life sentences.

"Operation Have Van Will Travel" began with a citizen reporting a
suspicious van.

Most of the suspects came to Bay County from Fort Lauderdale in early 2000,
Walker said. Gadson moved to Port St. Joe about the same time when released
from prison after serving two years for cocaine possession and carrying a
concealed firearm.

By spring 2002, Gadson had a network of rental houses and storage units in
Panama City for the drug operation, investigators said.

Suspects would meet customers in public places, put them in the back of the
van and take them to a "stash house," Walker said.

Drugs were brought from Texas in the mobile home with two cars serving as
lookouts, Walker said. If necessary, the lookout drivers diverted police
attention from the mobile home by breaking traffic laws, he said.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Investigator Bruce Johnson
said officers have identified several more suspects, and further arrests
are pending. One suspect died before an arrest could be made.