29 Arrested in Cocaine, Money-Laundering Case

DALLAS —  Federal and local agents Friday arrested 29 people, including four in Los Angeles, and searched for 11 more who were indicted on charges of operating a cocaine-trafficking and money-laundering scheme.

In a series of raids, officials seized the Genesis nightclub, as well as the homes of its owners, James D. Ragland Jr. and Larry Gene Ramsey, both of Dallas. The pair were described by officials as ringleaders.

The raids also netted three kilograms of cocaine, more than $500,000 in cash and five cars.

Agents estimated the value of Ragland’s and Ramsey’s homes at $250,000 each.

Ragland and Ramsey were among 24 people arrested in the Dallas area. Four others were arrested in Los Angeles, and one was seized in North Carolina, officials said.

“With these raids and synonymous raids this morning in Los Angeles and Wilmington, N. C., we believe we’ve cracked a significant cocaine distribution ring for north Texas,” said Phil Jordan, director of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas office.

The raids were the result of a three-year investigation of drug trafficking and money laundering, Jordan said.

A federal grand jury last month handed down a 127-count indictment naming 40 people on drug and tax violations in an alleged conspiracy that began in 1979.

The indictment charges that the defendants acquired cocaine in Colombia and transported it to south Florida and Southern California and then to Dallas for distribution.

Teams of agents from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, federal marshal’s office and police in Plano, Richardson, Euless, Arlington, Dallas, Hurst, Los Angeles and Wilmington, were involved in the raids.