Two men arrested after a third was killed by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Midtown on April 16 are facing federal drug charges after they were found with over 100 pounds of cocaine.
Larry Stoker and Calvin Trahan were charged April 17, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Agents with the DEA were working in tandem with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on a drug operation April 16 when one of the federal agents shot 36-year-old Deshawn Jones outside a Fairfield Inn and Suites on 29th Avenue North. Agents immediately provided Jones with aid but he later died at a nearby hospital, Jim Scott, special agent in charge of the DEA Louisville Field Division Office, said in a press conference from the scene.
According to the news release, authorities had been working on the drug case for months.
“Agents identified individuals suspected of trafficking in large quantities of drugs in the Nashville area and elsewhere,” the release said.
Jones and Stoker were two of those people. Jones was convicted in 2012 on federal charges connected to a racketeering conspiracy in Nashville, while Stoker was on federal supervised release for a federal conviction of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The night before the shooting, Jones went to pick up Stoker from Nashville International Airport, where he’d flown in from Houston. Jones then dropped him off at the Midtown Fairfield Inn and Suites, where he’d rented a room for one night, according to federal court records.
Agents, watching the hotel that night, then saw Trahan arrive. License plate readers tracked his road trip from Houston to Nashville. Trahan had previously been convicted of cocaine distribution in federal court in 2006, according to the release.
On April 16, before the 6 a.m. shooting, agents saw Stoker go to the car Trahan arrived in the night before and unload bags from the vehicle. Jones arrived at the hotel and met Stoker outside, then went inside carrying a blue suitcase, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
A short time later, Jones and Stoker emerged from the hotel carrying all the bags and the suitcase. Agents then swarmed the two men.
“Once Jones and Stoker exited the hotel and were observed carrying the bags, agents approached and identified themselves as law enforcement officers,” the release said. “Stoker and Jones dropped the bags and fled on foot. Stoker was apprehended. Jones was shot by a DEA agent during this operation.”
Inside the bags and suitcase, agents found 110 pounds of what tested positive for cocaine at the scene and bundles of cash totaling more than $250,000, the release said.
Trahan was arrested inside the hotel.
Agents believe Trahan brought the cocaine from Houston to give to Stoker, who then was to give it to Jones “in exchange for large sums of cash,” according to court records.
If convicted, Trahan and Stoker face a minimum of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum of life imprisonment.
The Metro Nashville Police Department is handling the shooting investigation, while the DEA will handle the drug charges against the two men.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: New details, charges after DEA agent kills man outside Nashville hotel
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