Pop Music Review

Federal prosecutors have named three additional defendants in a drug-smuggling case that at one point included an Orange County deputy district attorney accused of providing sensitive law enforcement information to the leader of the alleged crime ring.

Donovan J. Pantastico, Louis T. Ferreira Jr. and Troy Eugene Lopp are the latest defendants in a case that prosecutors described as an elaborate drug and money-laundering scheme based in Orange County.

In June, a federal grand jury indicted 12 alleged members of the drug ring, including Bryan Ray Kazarian, 35, a six-year veteran of the district attorney’s office, and John David Ward, 28, who authorities say led the group.

But since the charges were filed, the U.S. attorney’s office has disposed of cases against seven defendants, including Kazarian, in secret proceedings. Prosecutors and attorneys have declined to discuss the details. Related court documents will not be made public until the time of the trial, now scheduled for Oct. 3, said Assistant U.S. Atty. James Spertus.

According to authorities, the group produced methamphetamine and cocaine and smuggled the drugs to Hawaii hidden in Harley-Davidson motorcycles. One of the defendants is Howard Irvine Coones, 44, the founder of the local chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club.

Coones, Ward, James Mitchell Flanagan, 38, and Ward’s parents, Steven Donald, 52, and Frances Dianne, 51, still face prosecution.

Pantastico and Ferreira are accused of receiving the drugs in Hawaii and distributing them in that state, according to court documents filed last week.

Lopp is charged with receiving shipments of ephedrine in Orange County that the ring allegedly used to make methamphetamine.