Pubdate: Mon, 03 Oct 2005
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Copyright: 2005 Pulitzer Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/23
Author: Becky Pallack, Arizona Daily Star
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

RECORDS DETAIL VIOLENT WORKINGS OF BIG METH RING

Assaults. Kidnapping. Robberies. Drug deals. Addiction.

Police statements in court records detail the violence tied to an
alleged ring of methamphetamine dealers brought down in August, when
officers arrested about 30 people.

The records detail how the so-called Greenwell-Owens ring allegedly
made more than 800 drug sales since December 2003, distributing more
than 20 pounds - or 2,250-plus doses - of meth and smaller amounts of
other drugs.

Ring members are accused in affidavits of being violent thugs, thieves
and even would-be killers involved in assaults, kidnappings and more
than 50 property crimes. Some members are related, but police said all
shared a common trait: addiction to meth, an inexpensive and potent
stimulant.

They allegedly operated from two Midtown homes, where people with
knapsacks and duffel bags came and went, traffic backed up on a
dead-end street and gunshots were common.

The 102-count indictment has been sealed in Pima County Superior
Court, but 25 Drug Enforcement Administration affidavits released to
the Star show how police say the suspected ringleaders - Donna Mae
Greenwell, 49, and Timothy Kevin Owens, 48 - and their employees
imported and sold meth from Mexico, and how they violently collected
drug debts.

Affidavits are sworn statements officers make to a judge when asking
for an arrest or search warrant.

An attorney representing the alleged ringleaders declined comment. The
accused will be prosecuted as an organized-crime group in violation of
Arizona's anti-racketeering laws.

The bust was one of the biggest meth investigations in Southern
Arizona, said Capt. David Neri, commander of the Counter Narcotics
Alliance.

Police say meth contributes to as much as 50 percent of property
crimes, such as vehicle break-ins and shoplifting. And sometimes meth
has been linked to much more dangerous crimes.

A Long History Is Alleged

Greenwell has been a known drug dealer in Kansas and then in Arizona
for at least 17 years, but she is skilled at dodging police and
ignoring court dates, one officer's affidavit alleged.

 From her home in the 1600 block of North Desert Place, near North
Swan Road and East Pima Street, she traded stolen property and illegal
guns and paid thousands of dollars to bail members out of jail to get
back to work selling drugs, the affidavit alleges.

She also employed "enforcers," including one of her sons, Chad
Greenwell, 21, to collect drug debts by threats and violence, the
officer said.

One enforcer, Steven Tall-berg, 20, was given a gun by Donna Greenwell
and assigned to collect drug debts, an affidavit said. He also
allegedly bought and sold meth at least 17 times while on probation.

He was arrested on New Year's Eve 2003 for possession of a dangerous
drug for sale and possession of a weapon in a drug offense. At the
time, police said he had about 14.5 grams (a half-ounce) of meth and a
concealed pistol with the serial number scratched off. He had bought
that meth from Greenwell two days earlier, an officer said.

And in March, another enforcer, John "Menace" Simkins, 25, shot a man
through the front door of Donna Greenwell's home after the two argued.
A bullet hit the man's foot.

The occasional arrest didn't stop Greenwell. When police searched her
home in June 2004, they found meth and evidence of fraud, according to
an affidavit. A month later, when her vehicle was pulled over by
police, officers found about 110 grams (nearly 4 ounces) of meth, 5
grams of cocaine and $3,000. And just four days later, U.S. Border
Patrol agents who arrested her in Rio Rico discovered about 5 grams of
meth and tablets of oxycodone, a potentially addictive prescription
painkiller, records show.

While out of jail on bond for charges stemming from those arrests,
Greenwell was arrested again at a house belonging to Timothy Owens and
charged with possession of a dangerous drug for sale, an officer said.

Owens headed a second group that helped Greenwell, according to an
affidavit.

He supplied more than 5 pounds of meth to her in one four-month period
while organizing his own group's sales, importing meth from Mexico,
moving counterfeit money and collecting debts, sometimes at gunpoint,
an officer said.

Owens has been involved in the drug trade all of his adult life, and
he has ties to meth traffickers in Mexico, sometimes hiding out there
with a teenage girlfriend to avoid police, according to affidavits.

When police searched his home, near North Mountain Avenue and East
Fort Lowell Road, in June, they seized a pound of meth and 10 guns.

After he was released from jail on bond for charges stemming from that
search, he was arrested again for possession of a dangerous drug.

In January, police say, Owens planned and executed an armed robbery to
collect a drug debt and steal a "functional mobile methamphetamine
laboratory." He promised several of his "enforcers" meth for their
participation, a police affidavit says.

Ashton Lewis, 26, held a gun on the kidnap victim; Simkins had "a
weapon resembling a Mac-10 submachine gun"; and Matthew McDonald, 26,
Kevin Moffit, 23, and Whitney Collins, 19, also helped, according to
an officer's affidavit. All were arrested during the robbery.

In March, Owens asked someone to commit murder, probably over a drug
debt, police allege. Authorities have not released more about that
case.

The investigation is continuing, and authorities say anyone with
information can call 88-CRIME, the anonymous tip line of the Pima
County Attorney's Office. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake