By Pat Culverhouse
An early Friday morning search for a Claiborne Parish man wound its way into Webster Parish where Minden narcotics detectives and police officers located the suspect along with illegal narcotics and a large amount of cash.
Chief of Police Jared McIver said MPD narcotics investigators were contacted by Louisiana State Police who were searching for 33-year-old Georgerick Ja’Tedias Coleman of Haynesville, who was named in an LSP warrant on charges of racketeering activities.
A 6 a.m. raid on a Haynesville residence by LSP troopers and Claiborne Sheriff’s deputies had failed to locate Coleman, and MPD assistance was requested to check a local address where the suspect might be found.
Shortly after 6:15 a.m., Minden officers reportedly discovered the suspect’s vehicle at a residence in the 900 block of Madison Ave. and surrounded the location. Coleman reportedly was called out of the house and taken into custody without incident.
Because Coleman’s racketeering warrant indicated potential co-conspirators, Minden officers entered the residence to perform a safety sweep. While in the process of checking inside, an officer noticed several vacuum sealed bags in a basement closet.
After he had been Mirandized, Coleman reportedly told investigators the bags contained narcotics that belonged to him. A search warrant was secured, and inside the residence officers found four large vacuum sealed bags, each containing approximately two pounds of natural marijuana with a street value totaling nearly $13,000.
In addition to the marijuana, police found $3,590 in cash located in a bedroom and a money counting machine.
Coleman was booked on the racketeering activity warrant issued by Louisiana State Police and for possession of CDS Sch. I (marijuana) with intent to distribute.
McIver said Coleman’s arrest is one more example of the effectiveness of cooperation between multiple agencies.
“I can’t emphasize strongly enough how important it is to have this type of agency cooperation,” McIver said. “Our narcotics detectives, Lt. Shane Griffith and Lt. Kenny James, have a great relationship with other agencies and it’s paying off in arrests like this one.”
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
