LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Police and federal officials say more than 50 people have been arrested in a central Arkansas drug and weapons investigation that began 18 months ago.
Acting U.S. Attorney Patrick Harris, the FBI and Little Rock and North Little police say 25 people were arrested Wednesday, in addition to 27 who were already in custody as a result of several drug trafficking investigations that was centered in Little Rock.
Another nine suspects remain at large.
Authorities say the suspects face various conspiracy charges, including to possess or distribute cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and the prescription pain medication fentanyl. Several also face weapons charges.
Authorities say the drugs, 25 guns and approximately $241,000 of drug proceeds were seized during the investigation that began in 2015.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Arkansas Democrats’ dinner renamed to honor Bill Clinton
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Democratic Party on Wednesday renamed its annual fundraising dinner in honor of its favorite political son, former President Bill Clinton, nearly a year after dropping Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson’s names from the event over the late presidents’ slave ownership.
The party announced the newly named Clinton Dinner will be held in Little Rock on July 22, with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards headlining the event. Clinton, who served 12 years as Arkansas governor, was the speaker at the final Jefferson-Jackson Dinner the party held last year.
“It’s just kind of a no brainer when you think about it,” State Democratic Party Chairman Michael John Gray said. “We’ve had some great leaders in the party, some great senators, representatives, justices of the peace, but we’ve only had one president.”
The party announced it would drop the Jefferson and Jackson names from the dinner after several states, including Georgia, Missouri and Connecticut made similar moves. The parties’ efforts to distance themselves from the two presidents were part of a wider re-evaluation of names and symbols linked to slavery and the Confederacy that followed the 2015 shooting deaths of nine black churchgoers by a white gunman in South Carolina. That attack prompted South Carolina lawmakers to move the Confederate battle flag off the statehouse grounds.
Jefferson and Jackson are considered founders of the Democratic Party, but their ownership of slaves has drawn increased scrutiny in recent years. Jackson also signed the Indian Removal Act that led to the forced removal of Native Americans from their lands in what became known as the Trail of Tears.
The Clinton Dinner named was unveiled months after Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law legislation ending the state’s practice of commemorating Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on the state holiday for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Hutchinson, a Republican, had urged lawmakers to give King the holiday to himself.
Clinton’s name abounds in Arkansas, which has shifted sharply to the right since the former president served as governor. Clinton’s presidential library is located in Little Rock, along with a national airport named after the former president and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Arkansas teen gets 20 years in prison for fatal shooting
SHERWOOD, Ark. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to fatally shooting a teenager outside a recreation center in a suburb of Little Rock.
Quincy Parks pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the April 2016 shooting death of 17-year-old Bryan Allen Thompson in Sherwood.
Deputy Prosecutor Ashley Clancy says Parks demanded Thompson’s money and then shot him in the throat.
Xavier Terrell Porter is charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery in connection to Thompson’s death. He is scheduled for final pre-trial hearing next week.
Another teenager arrested in the case was transferred to juvenile court in October after he agreed to plead guilty to robbery charges and to testify against his co-defendants.
Montana man finds 2.78 carat diamond at Arkansas state park
MURFREESBORO, Ark. (AP) — A Montana man who grew up in Arkansas has found a 2.78 carat diamond at a state park in southwest Arkansas.
Wendell Fox of Joliet, Montana, says in a news release Tuesday from Crater of Diamonds State Park that he was “80 to 90 percent” sure the stone was a diamond and plans to keep it as a souvenir. The 70-year-old Fox says he had long wanted to search for diamonds at the park, but this visit with his wife is his first.
Park Retail Specialist Amanda Johnson says the diamond is about the size of an English pea with a champagne brown color. The park doesn’t estimate the worth of diamonds.
The diamond is the second-largest found at the park this year behind a 7.44 carat gem found in March.
Fires targeting property of police, firefighters in Arkansas
COTTON PLANT, Ark. (AP) — Authorities in a small Arkansas town say local police and firefighters are being targeted by suspicious fires and vandalism.
No suspects have been arrested for the fires and property damage in Cotton Plant that began in February, when a fire destroyed a firefighter’s rental home.
Other firefighters said their personal vehicles and an emergency van have been vandalized, and someone used gasoline to start a fire inside the local police department this month, Mayor Willard Ryland said. The latest fire occurred Sunday and damaged the home Chief Jason Johnston recently purchased for his mother.
Johnston said he was numb when he and other volunteer firefighters responded to the fire.
“I was hurt. When I saw it I thought, ‘Here we go again.’ I called for mutual aid to put the fire out. I was too sick to fight it myself,” Johnson said.
Ryland noted there was an ongoing investigation into a string of burglaries when the police department fire broke out. The fire destroyed a computer and a box of police investigation reports.
There was some tension in the town after Ryland fired Johnston last year. Johnston was reinstated by the City County, but the mayor said some firefighters quite in protest when Johnston returned.
Local police have asked Arkansas State Police to take over the investigation.
“I am waiting for the experts to tell us what’s going on,” police Chief Ritchie Haggans said.
Cotton Plant, a town of about 650 residents, is roughly 70 miles northeast of Little Rock.