Local man sentenced to nearly 9 years in Arkansas drug case
May 6—More than a year after he pleaded guilty, the last Somerset man caught transporting 56 kilos of cocaine through Arkansas back in October 2018 has been sentenced in federal court.
Johnnie D. Adams, 39, appeared Tuesday via video teleconference in the United States District Court's Western District of Arkansas and was sentenced to a total of 106 months in prison with credit for time served in federal custody — 46 months for Possession with Intent to Distribute Cocaine and 60 months for Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of a Drug Trafficking Crime, to be served consecutively.
He was additionally assessed a $200 fine.
Adams and his co-defendant, 35-year-old Curtis J. Troxtle, were indicted in connection to an October 29, 2018, traffic stop. A scheduled trial was canceled after Troxtle pleaded guilty on January 23, 2020. Adams followed suit a month later.
As reported at the time in the Magnolia Reporter (Ark.), Troxtle was driving and Adams was a passenger in a Ford Explorer which allegedly had been following a semi too closely as they traveled east on I-30 in Hempstead County, Arkansas. Both men indicated they had flown from Kentucky in Adams' private plane and were driving home because it broke down. Ultimately a K-9 unit alerted to possible narcotics in the vehicle. When Arkansas State Trooper Bernard Pettit informed the men he had probable cause to search the Explorer, Adams reportedly told him they were "mules and the car is loaded."
DEA Special Agent Matthew Newcomb wrote in his criminal complaint against the pair that authorities found 32 wrapped packages of suspected cocaine — weighing around 1 kilogram each — inside a suitcase and another 24 kilo-sized packages inside a duffel bag. Upon their arrest, according to the complaint, both men admitted to federal DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agents that they had transported cash and drugs between Detroit, Michigan, and McAllen, Texas, in Adams' plane on multiple occasions.
Upon release from imprisonment, Adams will be on supervised release for a term of five years.
Back in March, Troxtle was sentenced to a total of 84 months.
