5 men plead guilty in drug trafficking, racketeering case

A gavel and the scales of justice are shown in this photo.
A gavel and the scales of justice are shown in this photo.

One ranking member of the New Aryan Empire and four associates entered guilty pleas Thursday in a racketeering and drug trafficking case in federal court in Little Rock.

The New Aryan Empire, described by authorities as a white supremacist group that directed a violent methamphetamine ring, began in the 1990s as a prison gang, but prosecutors said the organization now engages in drug trafficking, witness intimidation, violent acts and even murder.

Kevin Long, Jeffrey G. Howell, Matthew Riggs, Thomas I. Plaisance Jr., and David Singleton entered guilty pleas in U.S. District Court before Judge Brian Miller, who conducted the hearing via Skype video conference link from the federal courthouse in Helena-West Helena.

Long, 25, heavily tattooed on his arms, appeared with his head shaved, revealing a nine-brick pyramid White Aryan Resistance tattoo on the back of his head. He wore an orange jumpsuit from the Jefferson County jail in Pine Bluff, and was led shackled and in leg irons into the courtroom by U.S. Marshals. He then sat before a video monitor.

Speaking in a monotone, Long answered with a terse "yes" or "no" in response to a number of questions Miller asked to determine if Long understood the nature of the charges against him.

Long faced charges of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, maiming in aid of racketeering, narcotics conspiracy and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering.

The charges stemmed from a two-year investigation in Pope County dubbed operation "To the Dirt," so named because membership in the New Aryan Empire is for life, or "to the dirt."

During the investigation, agents made 59 controlled purchases of methamphetamine. Law enforcement officials reported seizing 69 firearms, more than 25 pounds of methamphetamine and $70,000 in drug proceeds. A total of 54 of the group's estimated 5,000 members were named in the resulting 52-page indictment.

"Normally, Mr. Long, I would go through and read the counts against you," Miller said. "But because this indictment is quite long, what I've been doing is I've been going through and picking out the areas that are specific to the person that's come in, so I'm going to do the same with this."

Miller then went through the specifics of the five counts of the 32-count indictment to which Long had agreed to plead guilty.

When he is sentenced, Long could face spending the rest of his life in prison and be hit with $1 million in fines for his role in the crimes outlined in the indictment.

Howell, Riggs, Plaisance and Singleton all pleaded guilty to a single count each of narcotics conspiracy. The specifics of the indictment said that each conspired to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Upon sentencing, each could face a minimum of 10 years in prison and $10 million in fines.

The hearing for Plaisance nearly derailed when he insisted to the judge during a rambling statement that although he was entering his plea voluntarily, he felt that he had no choice but to enter into the agreement after having no contact with his attorney for months.

"Until two weeks ago I haven't been able to contact him since November of last year," Plaisance said. "I've written him letters and made several phone calls. I went over my case and found some things that I wanted done, but I haven't been able to contact him."

Plaisance, 44, told the judge that he had wanted a suppression hearing to suppress evidence that he said was discovered when a police dog was let out of a patrol car to take a bathroom break.

"To my knowledge you've got to give the K-9 dog a signal, tell it, give it a command to look for drugs," he said. "You don't let it out to use the restroom and it alerts for drugs, you give it a command, so I feel like that whole instance where the cellphones or whatever, it was illegal to start with."

Miller told Plaisance, "you're not required to enter a plea of guilty." Miller added that only two conditions would make such a plea permissible: that Plaisance, in fact, was guilty of the crimes with which he was charged and that he wanted to enter a guilty plea to those crimes.

"They're telling me if I don't accept this plea agreement today, it will no longer be on the table," Plaisance told the judge. "So I'm committed. I either take it today or never."

Prosecutors told Miller that the deadline for entering pleas in the case, which is scheduled for trial in February, is today. Miller was told that all of Plaisance's options had been gone over with his attorney.

After several minutes of discussion, during which Miller at one point said he was inclined to not allow Plaisance to plead in the matter, Plaisance asked Miller to accept his plea.

"I'll take it," he said. "I'll take it. I'm a grown man."

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