Monday night an unlikely midwest drug kingpin believed to supply 40% of the marijuana in Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri was arrested. Police found four pounds of pot, a semiautomatic weapon, and $276,000 of cash at rural Oklahoma home of 73-year-old Darlene Mayes.
Vinita, Oklahoma police started an investigation 5 months ago after a tipster told them that a large about of pot was moving from Mayes’ picturesque country home. Police chief Bobby Floyd expected to find marijuana, but was stunned by the amount of cash they found. “It was an extreme wow moment,” he told the local NBC station. Most of the cash was in garbage bags, or sealed in plastic, and stuffed in the mattress and closets.
The confiscated cash will reportedly be used to fight drugs, and will be split between the Craig County Sheriffs Office, Vinita Police Department and Craig County District Attorney’s office.
“It helps with the equipment,” Floyd said. “It helps to send my guys to proper schooling. We do a lot continuing education. And we really focus on drug interdiction.”
Darlene facesfive criminal charges: possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, maintaining a dwelling where drugs are kept or sold, possession of a firearm in commission of a felony and failure to affix tax stamps.
Police believe Darlene may have been the drug kingpin for 20 years.
Countdown to a new television show about Darlene’s life . . . . If they start from when she started the ring in her fifties, they should go with Ellen Barkin as the lead.
