By John Howell
Assistant U. S. Attorney Paul D. Roberts last week opposed in U. S. District Court in Oxford a motion by Carlos Lewis of Como for reduction of the prison sentence for his role in a cocaine distribution network that law enforcement began dismantling in 2012.

Lewis, 34, was one of at least 17 people sentenced in federal court who were indicted in an operation law enforcement officers dubbed “Comotion” when investigators suspected that large quantities of cocaine were being sold in Panola County by a loosely-knit group whose members were mostly from Como.

Lewis is currently serving 150 months at a federal correctional facility in Yazoo. His motion for a reduced sentence is the latest in a legal flurry in federal court that has spawned hundreds of documents over four years.

To date Comotion has resulted in Lewis and 16 other people sentenced to prison and over $50,000 cash and three guns seized, Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby said. It has involved the Panola County Sheriff’s Narcotics Unit, the Batesville Police Department Special Operations Unit, and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) and the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), Darby said.

 The case grew from tips in June, 2012 and earlier about cocaine sales at a trailer on Luscious Taylor Road where officers served search warrants after establishing surveillance. At one point during the investigation, 30 officers participated in serving search warrants in eight locations, said Panola sheriff’s department narcotics officers Tyler Mills and Gray Nickel.

Using wiretaps and information from confidential informants, investigators were able to determine that a cocaine supplier from Memphis and from Las Vegas, Nevada was supplying cocaine to Panola County, Darby said.

“Our case spun off into other jurisdictions,” Nickel said.

A “Superceding Indictment” handed down by the Grand Jury in U.S. District Court in January, 2013 names Lewis, Enrico Mabry, 34; Tirus Mills, 37; Anterio Glover, 30; Jeremaine Newman, 30; Alexander Robinson Jr., age not listed; Stevenson Lee, 45; and Undranika Kimmons, 27; all of Como and Quintin Whiting of Memphis, 44 and Kendrell Armstrong of Sarah, 33; among 10 counts ranging from conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute from 28 to 500 grams of cocaine, maintaining places to manufacture and distribute cocaine, and using interstate commerce to distribute proceeds of an unlawful activity.

An 11th count of the indictment charged Samantha Evans, 31, of Coldwater with using a cell phone to facilitate the distribution of cocaine.

Evans and Takish Marsha Harris, also 31, of Como were also charged with bank fraud in indictments related to handling money from sales of the contraband, court documents state.

Others sentenced in federal court following their arrests in Operation Comotion include Kentrell Armstrong, 33, of Sarah; Terrance Cotton, age and address not available; Kendrick Phillips, age not given, of Sardis; Kirklon Martel Scott, 30, of Como, and Danny Ellis of Los Vegas, Nevada.

Kimmons is the only defendant in Operation Comotion to have received probation instead of prison time. The other defendants received sentences ranging from 21 months to 188 months.

In U. S. District Court this year, Glover has had his sentenced reduced from 100 months to 80; Mills from 188 months to 151; Scott from 120 to 96, Robinson from 57 to 46.