Pubdate: Fri, 05 Aug 2005
Source: Charleston Daily Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2005 Charleston Daily Mail
Contact:  http://www.dailymail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/76
Author: Lawrence Messina, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

DRUG DEALER ALLEGED TO HAVE DUAL ROLE

A convicted drug dealer implicated in the April murder of a federal
informant was himself helping authorities as they investigated cocaine
trafficking in Mingo County, court filings show.

George M. "Porgy" Lecco was also allowed to keep some of the drugs
investigators found when they raided his Red Jacket pizza parlor in
February, one U.S. District Court filing alleges.

Lecco, 56, has not been charged in the murder of Carla Collins, but a
sworn statement from one investigator labels him her alleged killer.
Jailed since May 4 on pending drug charges, Lecco was unavailable for
comment Thursday. His lawyers, the federal public defender's office,
did not respond to requests for comment.

Lecco was previously convicted on federal cocaine charges in 1990. A
federal grand jury indicted him May 24 on five counts alleging he sold
cocaine out of the Pizza Plus between June 2004 and Feb. 16, when the
business was raided.

A motion filed by Lecco's lawyers last month alleges the officers who
conducted the raid took both drugs and cash from Lecco, but also left
some of both.

Other court filings show that as a result of the raid, Lecco agreed to
help a state-federal task force investigate drug dealing in the area.

"He would provide phone calls, he would meet up with us and give us
information, just various things," State Police Sgt. D.M. Nelson
testified in a May 9 hearing in Lecco's drug case.

"He didn't make any controlled buys, but he would provide information,
and it would lead us to believe that he was cooperating with the
government," Nelson said, according to the transcript of the hearing.

But Lecco's arrangement with investigators began to sour in April,
Nelson testified. For one thing, Lecco continued to sell drugs, Nelson
said. He also allegedly began to threaten would-be drug customers
after suspecting them of being informants.

Nelson testified that two local residents each reported angry
confrontations with Lecco during drug deals. In one case, Lecco
allegedly brandished a gun and ordered the man to strip before selling
him drugs, Nelson was told. In the other, Lecco allegedly held the
person at gunpoint and asked if he was wearing a wire.

"He did make the statement on the second occurrence that whoever was
wearing a wire, it will be over for them," Nelson testified.

Around this time, Collins, 33, began working as an informant for
investigators. An affidavit signed July 20 by Trooper A.S. Perdue said
that Collins wore a wire more than once for investigators and provided
information about Lecco selling both cocaine and marijuana.

Lecco eventually suspected that Collins was an informant, Perdue said
in his statement.

"Lecco's suspicion was based on word that Collins had a Mingo County
Sheriff's Department business card with the names of three people on
the back," the affidavit said.

Investigators say Collins, of Matewan, was shot in the chest and
suffered other injuries when she was killed in a mobile home near
Newtown. The home was torched, and she was buried in a shallow grave
nearby. Her body was found June 17.

Investigators believe several area residents aided Lecco before and
after her murder. Walter Harmon Jr., 36, was indicted last month on
charges alleging he aided the killing of a government witness by
burying the body and delivering the gasoline used to burn down the
murder scene.

Three other county residents face state murder charges arising from
the alleged conspiracy. A fifth man, Charles T. Hatfield, has been
indicted on federal charges alleging a role in the drug ring.

Meanwhile, two well-known women accused of interfering in the
investigation into Collin's death turned themselves in on Thursday and
were freed on $30,000 bond each.

Former Kanawha County school board member Betty Jarvis and Wanda
Carney, founder of the watchdog group West Virginia Wants To Know,
appeared in Mingo County Magistrate Court.

The two are accused of conspiring with a third woman last month to
enter the Mingo County residence of Valerie Friend, one of the people
charged in Collins' death.

Jarvis has said she went into the home looking for evidence to help
her nephew, Walter Harmon.

Jarvis says she took a Bible, a booklet on witchcraft and three rolls
of film but that all the items have since been sent to authorities.
Carney allegedly waited outside in a car.

Jarvis is charged with burglary, petit larceny and conspiracy to
commit both crimes.

Carney is charged with accessory to burglary and the two conspiracy
counts.
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