Six indicted on charges of selling cocaine

Thursday, May 27, 1999 | 10:20 a.m.

Six people have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Las Vegas on charges they sold pounds of cocaine over a seven-year period and invested their profits in Las Vegas property and cars worth $1 million.

The 19-count indictment returned Wednesday accuses Andre McGee of being the ringleader. Others named in the indictment are Patricia Saulter, Kendra High, Prudence Jackson, Charlotte Charleston and JoAnne Campbell.

The charges include conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy to launder money, money laundering and aiding and abetting.

The crimes are alleged to have taken place between 1990 and 1997. The indictment says area bank accounts were used to filter drug money that was used to purchase property at 1626 Candice St., near Owens Avenue and Nellis Boulevard, and 6250 W. Flamingo Road No. 157, a residence in a gated Las Vegas community.

High is listed in the Hill-Donnelly Cross Reference Directory as the resident of the Candice Street home.

If the federal government is successful in prosecuting the case, it stands to take by forfeiture the property it says in the indictment is worth $1 million.

The indictment alleges that "on Aug. 1, 1991, Andre McGee possessed about two pounds of cocaine, in a shoebox, which he distributed to another person later that day."

Seven cocaine deals are listed in the indictment, including a 1992 incident where McGee and two others who were not indicted "possessed with intent to distribute approximately three pounds of cocaine base."

Other amounts of cocaine ranged from 500 grams to 13 ounces. The other incidents took place from Sept. 17, 1991 to April 17, 1997.

"McGee would receive large sums of cash as the proceeds of his drug trafficking activities (and) disguise the spending of the proceeds to avoid detection by law-enforcement authorities," the indictment says.

He and his co-conspirators, the indictment alleges, used personal bank account checks and cashier's checks from a Las Vegas bank to buy the property from 1994-97.