LAWRENCE/WABASH COs. – The arrest in Wabash County of a Lawrence County felon has opened up an interesting can of worms as it regards the ongoing drug war across several counties and two states.
Cameron W. Jones, 32, of Bridgeport, had not yet been discharged from his parole period out of Illinois Department of Corrections (discharge date February 21, 2016) when, on Feb. 4, he was the subject of a traffic stop by Mt. Carmel police.
Details are few on the arrest, including where exactly in the city it took place.
However, Jones was cited for Operating an Uninsured Motor Vehicle and Driving While License Suspended. He was jailed, however, when Wabash authorities learned that there was a warrant for Jones’ arrest out of Lawrence County on a felony Aggravated Battery charge (the warrant was based on a failure to appear on a pay-or-appear date for fines, not for something recent, this according to Lawrence County court officials).
Jones was already on the bad side of Wabash County when, after being ticketed last July for Operating a Motor Vehicle while Registration is Suspended, he didn’t bother to show up a month later for any kind of hearing and was issued a “guilty” ex parte (not present).
That verdict, according to IDOC documents on file, was enough to get him sent back to prison for a very brief stint in Graham – from August 12, 2015, to September 30, 2015 – with the sentencing offences being a 2010 Meth Manufacturing less than 15 grams dating back to February 2010, and an Aggravated Battery Causing Great Bodily Harm dating back to April 2007, both of them out of Lawrence County.
But the Wabash County arrest did nothing to slow down Jones, whose criminal history runs parallel with one of Lawrence County’s most infamous meth losers, Dustin “Dusty Weiner” Wells, 37, who himself is on parole out of Big Muddy in Ina until mid-March.
Jones had also been rumored several years ago to have been hooked up with another major meth slinger in Lawrence County, Derek “Hootie” Wells, 29, who remains incarcerated at the Greene County Work Camp of Jacksonville Correctional Center until December 2017.
The biggest problem, those in the dope world circa 2010-2012 (when Hootie Wells was finally put away) with Jones is that Jones couldn’t be trusted to be involved in the meth field, manufacturing or delivery, because Jones couldn’t keep from beating people up.
Despite his violent tendencies, Jones continued to curry favor among the criminal element in Lawrence. And while he proved to be less-than-an-asset for the dope movers, as it’s turned out, he’s been something of an asset to law enforcement, as a recent discovery made by Disclosure has turned up.
Running out by Johnson Farms
According to those on the periphery of the dope-moving world in and around Lawrence, the Wabash arrest was little but a technicality based on the citation Jones had been unfortunate enough to incur last year.
He posted bond on the Feb. 4, 2016, citations (which had not been formally filed by press time, Feb. 14) and was released within a half-hour of the arrest.
Then on Monday, Feb. 8, there was reported to have been a major amount of police activity in the vicinity of Johnson Farms, which is situated to the west of Sand Barren Crossroad (the junction on Illinois Route 1 south of Lawrenceville, and west of St. Francisville). Sources advise that the major law enforcement presence was outfitted with night vision and were positioned near a lake not far from the farm. Whether they were conducting surveillance on the premises was not disclosed.
However, what was known was that plates were being run on every vehicle passing by the area, this as late as 2 in the morning Tuesday, the 9th…and one of them was Jones’.
In fact, it was noted on scanner traffic that when Jones’ vehicle was being run, law enforcement were being told not to stop it.
What Jones was doing driving when he had just four days earlier been cited for not having a driver’s license is unclear.
Was the CI in drug bust…?
Sources digging into why this phenomenon was occurring pointed out that it so happened that in the months before a major drug bust went down in Lawrence back in October of 2015 – a federal drug bust, originating out of the state of Indiana – Jones was involved.
Indictments were handed down on October 6, 2015, by a federal grand jury, charging several people between Vincennes, Indiana (across the river from Lawrence County) and Lawrenceville with conspiracy as it involved meth distribution. Shevockus L. Swing and Donta Henderson, both of Vincennes; Jason Davis, of Bruceville; and Justin Swain, Tammy Gillespie and James “Nigger James” Western, all of Lawrenceville, were indicted, along with an Indianapolis connection, Julius Weldon, were arrested between Oct. 11 and Oct. 19, and their cases are proceeding through the federal court system for the Southern District of Indiana.
Sources, including eyewitnesses, have reached Disclosure advising that one of the Confidential Informants (CI) who enabled the feds to successfully wrap Western up in the conspiracy ring, possibly dating as far back as July 8, 2015, was Jones.
Jones was alleged to have made a buy from Western, for the feds, at one of the gas stations on the main drag through Lawrenceville at that time.
It might appear that because Jones’ presence on the road near Johnson Farms in mid-February was being “overlooked,” he might once again be working for the feds…which isn’t a bad thing, if indeed the feds are going to continue their work on the meth conspiracy rings in the area. However, if it’s just the locals attempting their hand at something huge like what the feds accomplished last year, using Jones might be more of a liability than an asset, since he is uncontrollably violent and has some of the seedier meth-slingers in the area as his associates, plus the fact that what’s passing for prosecution in Lawrence right now doesn’t appear to be the best at tamping down the meth-slinging.
Conspiracy can reach back years
As regards the federal case, Western had entered a plea of guilty to his charge, this on deadline, Feb. 11.
He was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s service, and had yet to have a sentencing date set.
The rest of the defendants’ cases are slogging through the federal court system with pretrial conferences and status hearings set. Swing, Davis, Henderson and Swain all were ordered to continue to be detained in federal custody after a hearing on Oct. 21; Gillespie was ordered released on a recog bond, which lead to false hope among her supporters that her charges might be dismissed.
All were set for upcoming pretrial conferences and a jury trial date of July 18, unless one or all plead out, like Western did, before such an event will take place.
In connection with this case, as he had already fingered an unidentified Indianapolis connection (known only as the nickname “Broker”) was a man in neighboring Richland County west of Lawrence, Josh Millman, who is in the federal pen right now on a meth conviction out of Clay County that went federal in 2015.
The meth conspiracy, it was said last October, widened out when different ones across Richland, Crawford, Edwards and Wabash were caught up with some of the individuals in Lawrence, and it seemed that the main two things they all had in common was A – they took delivery of meth via FedEx or UPS; and B – they had an upstate Indiana (specifically, Indianapolis) connection.
Whether more federal arrests will continue remains to be seen at this time. On conspiracy charges – which can include the facilitation of manufacturing of meth, including providing precursors, a place to make the meth, running the meth (“mules”), etc. – the feds are allowed to reach back seven years.
In many instances, some who have been out of the meth scene for years and years and have completely disassociated with those in it, and have been clean for that long as well, have been named in conspiracies, have been charged, convicted and sentenced, and are to this day sitting in federal holding over something they had long left several years prior.
Will he stay or will he go…?
Whether this most recent alleged failure to pay or appear will send Jones back to prison for a few weeks remains to be seen.
The 2006 Aggravated Battery case from which it stems had been set for “review” status on January 26, just before Jones was busted in Wabash.
He still has $7,401.38 to pay of a massive $16,763.38 in fines, fees and restitution ordered to be paid on the case.
Currently, Jones is under an Order of Protection keeping him from contacting one Jennifer Jones.
That matter had been set for a plenary hearing on Feb. 11; the outcome wasn’t available as of press time.