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[Southsider2k12]

http://www.indystar.com/article/20111025/N...t%7CFRONTPAGE33

DETROIT -- An 87-year-old Indiana man arrested with 104 bricks of cocaine in his pickup truck told a judge Monday that he was forced at gunpoint to carry the load.

During a boisterous appearance in court, Leo Sharp had trouble keeping quiet, even after he was warned that anything he said could be used against him. There were grins and occasional laughter from lawyers, spectators and U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Randon.

Federal prosecutors wanted to keep Sharp locked up, but the Michigan City, Ind., man was released on bond three days after he was stopped for improper lane use while driving alone on I-94 near Chelsea, 60 miles west of Detroit.

With the help of a drug-sniffing dog, state troopers discovered 104 brick-sized packages of cocaine Friday, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"You're dealing with a man forced to do what I did by gunpoint," Sharp told the judge.

A criminal complaint signed by a DEA agent is thin on details, and there was no mention in court about Sharp's destination. The judge had to speak loudly after Sharp said he had lost some hearing during a war. Sharp did not elaborate.

Sharp asked that he be allowed to get medicine that apparently had been seized by officers.

"I could have a stroke," he said.

At another point, Sharp said he probably could read better than anyone in the courtroom and that he's writing a book. He "absolutely" promised to return to court on Nov. 10. "You're the boss," Sharp told the judge, who ordered a mental-health evaluation.

"I'm sorry, sir, to be so troublesome," Sharp said.

Outside court, he told The Associated Press he grows lilies on a 46-acre Indiana farm.

"I love plants. It's a serious love -- except the crap that makes you high," Sharp said. "I'm innocent. You'll learn about it."

Defense attorney Ray Richards said he thinks the amount of cocaine tops 200 pounds.

"This case is going to be challenging," Richards said.

DEA spokesman Rich Isaacson said he couldn't discuss details of the investigation but said the role of an 87-year-old man was unusual.

"Drug-trafficking groups use all kinds of measures to avoid detection by law enforcement. Using an older gentleman could be another strategy," he said.

[Southsider2k12]

http://www.freep.com/article/20120302/NEWS...|text|FRONTPAGE

A drug bust involving an 87-year-old man who was caught with nearly $3 million worth of cocaine in his pickup has led to another major drug prosecution for the federal government, this one involving a Mexican drug cartel and 18 defendants accused of shuttling massive amounts of coke into metro Detroit for years.

One of the defendants, turns out, is the elderly pickup driver, who was a courier for the massive drug ring that ran a cocaine pipeline between Mexico and Detroit for several years, according to a second superseding indictment Wednesday.

The drug mule, per court records, is Leo Earl Sharp, 87, of Michigan City, Ind., who was arrested last October during a traffic stop near Ann Arbor with 229 pounds of cocaine in his pickup. That was at least $2.9 million worth of cocaine in wholesale value, police said.

In court last year, Sharp did not offer a full explanation about what happened. But he did try telling the magistrate that he was forced at gunpoint to haul the cocaine, until his then-defense lawyer stepped in and advised him to just answer the judge's questions.

Meanwhile, Sharp’s new lawyer, Chicago attorney Darryl Goldberg, said that he plans to “vigorously” defend his client given what he faces.

“Any conviction will be a death sentence,” said Goldberg, noting that Sharp faces a minimum 10-year sentence if convicted. “That’s a death sentence for an 87-year-old.”

Per the new indictment, Sharp was a drug courier for two years, delivering roughly 670 kilograms of cocaine to conspirators in Michigan between 2009 and 2011. He was part of a drug trafficking organization, the indictment said, that shipped cocaine on a regular basis from Mexico to Michigan. Shipments of cocaine would be received at the Arizona-Mexico border, and then driven to Michigan, where members would meet at a warehouse in Wyandotte and unload the drugs for distribution.

The drug organization, records show, is a part of an international drug cartel based in Sinaloa, Mexico, and helped distribute between 100 and 300 kilograms of cocaine per month in metro Detroit from 2008 through 2011.

"Shedding light on this conspiracy makes it quite clear that the Mexican drug cartels are open for business right here in our backyard,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Robert L. Corso.

Since 2011, DEA agents and other federal agents have seized more than 200 kilograms of cocaine and more than $2.5 million in cash tied to the narcotics ring.

Authorities said that members of the organization resided in Mexico, Florida, California and Michigan.

Charged in the indictment are:

• Jose Roberto Lucero-Bustamante,34

• Armando Dias-Lucero, 28

• Pedro Delgado-Sanchez, 44

• Octavio Humberto Gamez, 38

• Moises Osuna Licona, 43

• Theodore J. Czach, 35

• Alejandro Aparicio Vargas, 38

• Antonio Simmons, 38

• Sergio Cordova Alvarado, 31

• Nicholas Dominick Simmons, 24

• Kenneth Dwayne Jenkins, 53

• David Felix Jurado, 30

• Oscar Enriquez Martinez, 33

• Reymoyne Thornton, 39

• Walter Ogden, 55

• Mark George Bailey, 38

• Martin Najjar, 36.
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