Trio accused of conspiring to buy 'China White' heroin to sell out of Gulfport bar - SunHerald

Authorities say bar owners sought to buy 'China White'

By MARGARET BAKER

mbbaker@sunherald.com

GULFPORT -- Three South Mississippi residents have been arrested on federal charges accusing them of conspiring to buy a kilo of "China White" heroin to sell out of a Gulfport bar, court records show.

Carlos Miller, 34, Julie Michelle Glass, 31, and Randall Sheffield, 33, are accused in the conspiracy to sell the high-grade heroin out of the Ice Daiquiri Lounge in the 1900 block of East Pass Road in Gulfport. All three have pleaded not guilty. Magistrate Judge Robert H. Walker on Tuesday ordered all three held without bond pending grand jury review of the case for indictment.

According to an affidavit filed by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in the case, bar owners Miller and Glass first started trying to set up a deal to buy three kilos of cocaine from a confidential informant in November.

During a subsequent meeting with the informant two month later, records say, Mill

er said he sold heroin out of the bar and worked with members of a drug trafficking organization to distribute heroin in the New Orleans area.

The negotiations continued in January, records say, when Miller and Glass met the informant again, first requesting to buy a kilo of heroin for $80,000, with plans to buy three more kilos once the first kilo sold.

At a later meeting in January, the affidavit says, Miller and Glass asked to buy the one kilo of heroin along with a kilo of cocaine.

On Jan. 23, Miller told the informant they had a member of their drug trafficking organization holding $30,000 in cash for them and they could offer that along with a real estate deed Glass owned and the title to 2008 Dodge Charger that they could provide as partial payment for the purchase.

A short later, Miller called the informant back from the lounge to say he'd managed to gather up $11,000 in cash to combine with the car title and the deed to make the purchase.

That's when surveillance units spotted Glass leaving the lounge in the Dodge Charger followed by Glass and Sheffield in a Honda Accord. A traffic stop followed, resulting in their arrests and the seizure of an unspecified amount of cash, a 9 mm pistol and .357 revolver.

Miller is a convicted felon, court records show, having been convicted of attempted possession of a controlled substance in 2011. Glass has an active warrant in Gulfport Municipal Court for failure to appear on a shoplifting charge. In addition, records show, an Uzi and a mask were found in the bar Glass and Miller owned after a search was conducted there.

Sheffield has a 2001 conviction for possession of marijuana along with a prior conviction for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and is already under the supervision of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.