Fugitive Suspect in Narcotics Ring Seized

A reputed international narcotics trafficker and money launderer with ties to fugitive federal drug agent Darnell Garcia has been arrested in Laughlin, Nev., after nearly two years on the run, authorities announced Wednesday.

Conway Willie Waddy Jr., suspected of helping Garcia and two other former Drug Enforcement Administration agents conduct a clandestine cocaine and heroin trafficking operation out of Los Angeles, was surrounded by federal agents and Las Vegas police Tuesday night while shopping in a local video store. He quietly surrendered, the FBI said.

Waddy, who is under indictment in Detroit on charges of laundering millions of dollars in drug proceeds and trafficking large quantities of cocaine, is named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a February indictment in Los Angeles accusing Garcia and fellow former DEA Agents John Jackson and Wayne Countryman with conspiring to sell major quantities of heroin and cocaine.

Brother Still Wanted

Waddy and his brother, Ron, who remains a fugitive, are thought to have been protected by the same sophisticated underground network that is helping Garcia elude capture, federal authorities said. But despite Waddy’s arrest, there is still no immediate indication of Garcia’s whereabouts, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Joyce Karlin, who is supervising the Los Angeles investigation.

“We’re looking for him. Beyond that, I can’t comment,” she said.

Prosecutors, citing an earlier court-imposed gag order in the case, declined to elaborate on the nature of the “network” that is cited in court documents. However, the documents say there is “no question” that Garcia has been “provided assistance” in eluding authorities since he disappeared Nov. 22.

Tip Cited

According to court documents in Los Angeles, Waddy and his brother were tipped off to the Detroit investigation by Garcia, who at the time was still working at the Los Angeles DEA office, and were given refuge by Garcia in a Bunker Hill Towers apartment after a Detroit grand jury indicted them in June, 1987.

Acting on tips from Garcia, Ron Waddy is also believed to have tipped off major Los Angeles drug dealer Elrader (Ray Ray) Browning to a pending federal indictment against him, allowing Browning to flee temporarily to the home of a girlfriend, authorities said.

John Anthony of the Detroit FBI said the Waddy brothers were originally indicted as part of a multimillion-dollar undercover money-laundering investigation dubbed Operation Right Turn. They were subsequently indicted on charges of selling half a kilogram of cocaine to undercover FBI agents, an investigation that led to the discovery of 86 kilograms of cocaine and $100,000 in cash believed to be connected to the Waddys’ drug-trafficking operations, Anthony said.

Los Angeles authorities said the Waddys were carrying on their purported money-laundering activities in Detroit at a time “when they were associating closely with Garcia and Jackson.”

Court documents in Los Angeles describe the Waddy brothers as “dangerous criminals” with connections to Browning and convicted narcotics kingpin Tootie Reese. Ron Waddy, federal authorities said, was an “enforcer” for Reese’s narcotics organization.

Tom Nicodemus, spokesman for the FBI in Las Vegas, said Conway Waddy had been in Laughlin only a few days but apparently had rented or arranged to use a condominium there in the name of Cecil Woodard. He was scheduled to be arraigned before a federal magistrate in Las Vegas and returned to Detroit for trial.