Federal prosecutors may soon charge a former narcotics officer and a medical doctor for their alleged ties to a nationwide drug-trafficking and money-laundering scheme involving Lafayette's Curious Goods, a Georgia-based record label and a nonprofit addiction recovery center.
The fed's are expected to charge two more people for their roles in the multi-state conspiracy involving the synthetic marijuana product "Mr. Miyagi" and the local head shop Curious Goods, says a person with a vested interest in the case.
That person is Lance Dyer of Bremen, Ga., whose 14-year-old son, Dakota, shot and killed himself in April after smoking Mr. Miyagi for the first time. Dakota is so far the only death tied to smoking Mr. Miyagi.
Since Dakota's suicide, his father has devoted himself to taking down the people involved in manufacturing and distributing Mr. Miyagi. Dyer is a witness in the federal case, as well as a key source in The IND's continuing coverage of the conspiracy.
In an e-mail sent Wednesday, Dyer "unofficially" tells The IND he believes two more names will be added to the list of nine coconspirators included in the federal grand jury's indictment, which was unsealed by U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley's office on Oct. 2. Among those originally charged are several locals, including Lafayette criminal defense lawyer Daniel Stanford, Curious Goods owner Richard Buswell, and Buswell's alleged business partner/attorney Barry Domingue of Carencro. The remaining coconspirators includes a group of men out of Georgia and Florida who were responsible for manufacturing and distributing the Mr. Miyagi products sold by Curious Goods.
"If I knew of anymore indictments coming down that would mean I had turned something over to Homeland (Security) and the FBI, and if I had done that, they would have told me not to say anything about it until they made the (indictments) official," Dyer writes. "With that being said ... on the indictments ... I have no comment, but feel free to read between the lines."
Reading between the lines, as Dyer says, leads to David Lushbaugh and Wilson George, whose alleged roles in the conspiracy, he says, stem from their connections to Tommy Malone Jr. and Drew Green, the men responsible for creating the synthetic cannabinoid products used to make Mr. Miyagi through their company NutraGenomics. Green and Malone have since pleaded guilty and are now cooperating in the federal case in exchange for reduced sentences, which will be rendered during a January hearing in Lafayette federal court.
From left: Tommy Malone Jr., Drew Green and Sleepy Brow
Dyer says he believes the Pam Green Foundation was one of two front operations used by Malone and Green for funneling proceeds from NutraGenomics. The second of those fronts, according to Dyer, is 13 Black Records, an Atlanta-based label run by producer/songwriter Sleepy Brown of The Dungeon Family, which includes acts like Goodie Mob and OutKast, among others. Green and Malone both sit on the label's board of directors.
The connection between Green, Malone and Lushbaugh, though, is through the Pam Green Foundation, says Dyer.
According to the Fulton Country Assessor's Office, Lushbaugh - a medical doctor and a longtime employee/board member for the National Association of Mental Illness - is listed as the owner of a home in Sandy Springs, Ga., which headquarters the Pam Green Foundation - a nonprofit created by Green and Malone to purportedly help drug addicts overcome addiction by using synthetic drugs.
"This man should have known more than anybody, yet he rents (Green and Malone) the property," says Dyer. "(Lushbaugh) even admitted to me on the phone that he'd been inside NutraGenomics, seen their manufacturing. So here's a man who has dedicated the last two decades to mental illness. Do you not think Green and Malone's mood enhancement' drugs wouldn't have sent up a red flag for him?"
David Lushbaugh
Joining Lushbaugh as another possible coconspirator is Wilson George, says Dyer. George is a retired member of the U.S. Coast Guard and a former federal counter-narcotics intelligence officer, whom Dyer says was hired as a consultant by Malone and Green in February to advise them on how to evade enforcement and effectively traffic their line of synthetic drugs.
Wilson George
"I can tell you this, (George) is not a plant and he wasn't put there by the U.S. government to keep tabs on these guys," says Dyer. "Officially though, I have no comment on whether these guys will be indicted, but like I said, if I did know anything about it, Homeland Security would have definitely told me to be quiet."
The Ind sent an e-mail asking whether charges will be forthcoming against Lushbaugh and George to Mona Hardwick, communications director for U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley's office.
"The U.S. Attorney's Office has no comment," writes Hardwick in an e-mail sent Thursday evening.
Click here and here for more on the Curious Goods conspiracy.