Detroit Heroin Conspirators Sentenced to over a Century
Criminals who conspired to bring multiple kilos of heroin to our community have been sentenced to over one hundred years for the roles they played in a pipeline that brought the dangerous drug from Detroit to Knoxville. Prosecutor Sean McDermott with DA Charme P. Allen’s Felony Drug Unit secured convictions last week for conspirators Eddie Ross Taylor, 32, Christopher Jackson, 35, and Jessica Lynn McCarver, 23. Earlier this year, Defendant Lorenza Jackson, 43, was convicted and sentenced after a federal trial prosecuted by AUSA Caryn Hebets.
In separate hearings last week, ADA McDermott explained to Judge Scott Green that the case began when Officer Phil Jinks of the Knoxville Police Department Repeat Offender Squad received information that individuals from Detroit, Michigan, were transporting large quantities of heroin down Interstate 75 to Knoxville using Greyhound busses and rental cars. Ofc. Jinks learned that the group moved between a number of area hotels to sell heroin, but he was also able to pin the group to an apartment in the Steeplechase Apartment complex in north Knoxville. Once he had the location, Ofc. Jinks was able to confirm heroin sales within the apartment and was able to obtain a search warrant for the apartment.
On October 1, 2013, officers with KPD searched the apartment and a nearby storage unit and found heroin, thousands of dollars in cash, multiple firearms, and other items used to weigh and package heroin for resale. After his arrest, Christopher Jackson made bond and fled to Detroit. Jackson returned to Knoxville two weeks later with nearly one hundred grams of heroin. He was taken into custody by officers on his way to a hotel room that had been booked by KPD under the name of a conspirator who was already cooperating with the State at the time. The total amount of heroin distributed by this drug ring in Knoxville exceeded multiple kilograms worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
District Attorney Charme Allen stated,””Heroin is a poison in our community. Detroit drug dealers see that East Tennessee has a large population of opiate and prescription painkiller addicts, and they seek to make a profit off that addiction. Hopefully, lengthy prison sentences and aggressive prosecution will make them think twice before setting up shop in Knoxville.””
If you have any questions, please contact Sean McDermott at 865-215-2515 or Sean.McDermott@knoxcounty.org. For more information about the District Attorney’s Office, visit our website at dag.knoxcountytn.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.