ABINGDON, Va. – A federal grand jury in Abingdon, Virginia, has indicted seven individuals as part of a large-scale heroin and methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy that brought the drugs from Michigan into Southwest Virginia and Eastern Tennessee for redistribution.
The four-count indictment, returned under seal last week and unsealed on Wednesday, Jan. 18, following multiple arrests, charges Robert Earl Warr, 32, of Detroit, David Edward Farmer, 56, of Strawberry Plains, Tenn., John Joel Foster, 50, of Lee County, Va., Robert Lee Jenkins, 25, of Detroit, Ray Anthony McSwain, 28, of Detroit, Garrett Lee Teffeteller, 42, of Townsend, Tenn., and Darin Ken Thomas, 38, of Kodak, Tenn., as follows:
Warr, Jenkins, Farmer, Foster, and Teffeteller are charged with conspiring to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine.
Warr, Jenkins, McSwain, Farmer, and Thomas are charged with one count of conspiring to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin.
Farmer and Thomas are each charged with one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
According to court documents, the co-conspirators operated in Southwest Virginia and Eastern Tennessee from September 2021 through September of 2022. During that time, Warr, Jenkins, and McSwain traveled from Michigan to Tennessee to secure large quantities of heroin and crystal methamphetamine for local suppliers to sell throughout Southwest Virginia and Eastern Tennessee.
United States Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh and ATF Washington Field Division Acting Special Agent in Charge Christopher Amon announced the arrests.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Lee County Sheriff’s Office; the Wise County Sheriff’s Office,;the Southwest Virginia Drug Task Force; the Knoxville, Tenn., Police Department; the Knox County, Tenn., Sheriff’s Office; the Sevier County, Tenn., Sheriff’s Office; and the Lee County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office are investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lena L. Busscher is prosecuting the case for the United States.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.