Hush-hush drug investigation is ongoing
COLUMBIA — The magnifying glass is back on the Charleston cocaine scene.
After remaining silent for months, authorities at Friday's sentencing of former state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel let on that the ongoing investigation into Charleston's drug world is real.
On several occasions prosecutors tried to stop any testimony given in front of U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson Jr. from veering into the direction of the coke probe.
An "ongoing investigation" was said several times, and lawyers were asked not to venture too deep.
One law enforcement source said part of the investigation includes the bar scene around Broad Street, and that subjects, young and old, are involved.
Broad Street is home to various see-and-be-seen spots where the Holy City's party crowd spends its free time barhopping on the peninsula.
It's also near Ravenel's home. After-hours parties at the house, following the city's 2 a.m. bar closing, was where some of the illegal drug use surfaced, authorities say.
Names and sites under scrutiny have not been disclosed, but the investigation has gone on for at least eight months.
Is Ravenel naming names? Lt. Frank O'Neal, an agent with the State Law Enforcement Division who supervises a section of the state grand jury, testified that Ravenel has been quite helpful. O'Neal has called on Ravenel for information about 100 times, sometimes as often as daily, since their initial conversation in June 2007, he testified.
O'Neal agreed that Ravenel has been "cooperative, truthful and helpful" about the Charleston drug world.
Ravenel's help has been so accurate, his lawyers argued, that he deserved a better break than the 10 months in federal prison the judge gave him.
"There's a continuing investigation; we're supposed to get credit for that," pleaded defense team member Gedney Howe. "If you play it straight, you're supposed to get rewarded. I can't let you sentence my man on wrong information."
In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Witherspoon and his fellow prosecutors were so worried about harming their silent cases that they preferred to let Anderson postpone the punishment for Ravenel and his co-defendant Michael L. Miller for several months than to tip their hand.
No time frame was disclosed on when a next round of indictments might come.
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Comments
This article has 49 comment(s)
Posted by lexylady on March 15, 2008 at 8:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Mayor, Pablo Escabar is dead? Isn't he the one that fled after Ravenel's arrest? I missed out somewhere. How did they find him and how did he die? Would appreciate your info!
Ravenel better get lost too, when he gets out. I would imagine there will be some PO people out there if he has given names!
Posted by SomeTruthPlease on March 15, 2008 at 10:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Lexylady, Pablo Escobar was a vile drug dealer from Colombia and one of the richest men in the world...it was a reference to him being facetious...
Posted by KidYendor on March 15, 2008 at 10:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We have to stop having people who don't like certain things from making laws against others who like those things if we are to have a free society. Most lawyers will not call for drug decriminalization or legalization because defending arrestees makes them money. Some lawyers probably do a few lines on the weekend along with thousands of other productive Charlestonians. Big deal. Having police and prosecutors snooping into non-disturbance late night adult private parties in homes and finding out who the people were and what they were doing and how much coke they did and how many nights they did it is disgusting. Indicting people for attending these parties is sickening.
Posted by sumDJiam on March 15, 2008 at 11:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm glad Ravenel did all the dirty work for me as far as cooperation, cuz i sure as hell wasn't for giving up any names or admitting that I sold drugs to most of the guys they asked about, cuz its makes no sense to bother these people for using or being around us while we were using.
Posted by BillMan on March 15, 2008 at 11:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
DJ,
I'm glad everything worked out for you, and I appreciate your honesty thoughout all of this, you'll do fine, you'll be fine :)
Posted by lexylady on March 15, 2008 at 11:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
SomeTruth, Thank you for clearing that up for me.
Posted by sumDJiam on March 15, 2008 at 11:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
HAHA, I cant believe she didnt know who Escobar was, and even funnier she confused him with Pasquale, lol, I cant see that guy ever harming a single soul, heck he probably fights like a girl...MAYOR, yes I was pressed but only so little. So i gave a few names of people who's real names i don't know and havent seen in years, but got drugs from before, lol. They pressed me for my dealings with RICH clients, that was all mainly. The indictments yet to come will be a roster of RICH WHITE MEN, or anybody making more than the agents' combined salaries.
Posted by sumDJiam on March 15, 2008 at 11:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I wish I could say that without laughing but it's true, you'll see how many dealers are indicted vs. users even though Thomas gave up names of other dealers he's bought from, ain't nothin gonna happen to them, just little ol' me.
Posted by sumDJiam on March 15, 2008 at 12:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
LOL, "Heck, I could have already prosecuted 20 people just by hanging around."... I think I'm getting sent to a work camp. I certainly don't wanna have to see Thomas in a cell next to me. I liked how the report on our sentencing mentioned that "neither men acknowledged each others presence"...If Spitzer goes to trial for the prostitution thing he'll have to see that girl again, (the one who's "to blame") I'm certain that now that everyone knows what she is that he'll not ignore her like he should have before people knew about them. Thomas shoul've never been associated with me in no way shape or form... What am I supposed to say to Thomas "Hey what up dog, you need anything?"
Posted by BillMan on March 15, 2008 at 1:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
DJ,
This sounds like a weak case against these other guys you say are going to be indicted, what gives, how has'nt this been exposed! This is a joke!
Posted by sumDJiam on March 15, 2008 at 1:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Man, I don't know, I hope I'm wrong and they do get a dealer or two, or a major distributor, if not people will always assume I must've been the best in the business. I don't know why they haven't gone forward with the other charges yet...waiting for a slow news day?? Maybe the bribed the other guys?? Maybe there's a pizza party for the team of agents that bring in the longest list of alleged co-conspiritors and other dealers. It might just be an Office pool type thing. A competition among themselves. SLED CHIEF: "Another golden sticker by your name agent Frank O'neal, and free RiverDogs baseball tickets"
Posted by charlestonundergroundblog on March 15, 2008 at 2:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Who is Daniel Hier and what's he done?
Every bar in this country has coke users. I don't think it's fair to single out and blemish the name of an establishment just because there might be people who go there who do blow. I'm sure the Peninsula Grill is a coker haunt too. How silly. This whole thing is silly and it shows how podunk this place can be.
For the record, I have been going to the Blind Tiger for eight years (minus the few years I lived elsewhere) and I have never once seen anyone do cocaine, talk about cocaine, transact cocaine, or leave the bathroom with a donut around their nose. I'm sure some people who go there do cocaine, but I'm sure some people who go to Harris Teeter do cocaine too.
Posted by Joe on March 15, 2008 at 2:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Listening to you people cry about Thomas is pathetic. So what if he partied...It doesnt bother as many people as you all may think, it cetainly doesnt bother me...I'm more bothered by the busybodies who want to see him go to jail...and I hope he beats this case altogether.
He still has more class in his little finger than Hillary or the worm Obama combined...
Thomas Ravenel for President!
My name is Joe and I approve this message...
Posted by charlestonundergroundblog on March 15, 2008 at 3:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I went to Charlie's Little Bar a few times - never saw cocaine in the open, but again, you'll see the same people everywhere. Maybe you have to be looking for it to see it?
The bartenders were very nice to me, but I tipped well.
Regarding Daniel Hier, yes, I haven't been in Charleston for the past few years and apparently I did miss AMW when they aired his story. Thanks for clarifying.
Posted by 4freewill on March 15, 2008 at 3:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I have been saying for years what a joke the "Drug Investigations" are. Surely by now, they have figured out who the big rollers are. My theory is that they absolutely DO know the identities of more than one highroller, and are not prosecuting due to pay-offs. It is too profitable for them. Why would they lock up their cash cows? In the meantime, our local jail has the little guys literally stacked on top of each other like kindling. Again, WHAT A JOKE.
Posted by BillMan on March 15, 2008 at 3:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Bar with cocaine activity on Broad St.? Blind Tiger is the only bar on that street, Charlie's closed many years ago? Blind Tiger a cocaine hang out, am I missing something? DJ, you know anything about this?
Posted by sumDJiam on March 15, 2008 at 4:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
BLIND TIGER, oh hell yeah dude. I had a buddy of mine running that joint, I think he was raking in some serious dough, cuz when he went down i found myself in the eastbay side of town almost everynite as opposed to my usual hangout spots. It's not my choice bar, no matter how much is to be made there, but yeah, i got alotta calls to make deliveries there, but i'd meet em at around the corner at wasabi's or wherever but there. CHARLIE'S LITTLE BAR, GOD, I almost forgot about that place. that one room where the door could be closed and locked made for all kinds of sex and drug activities to go down, that room was half the bar if i recall, and they actually had a door to it, that u could lock....good times.
Posted by lillycollette on March 15, 2008 at 5:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am very saddened by people who whine about the government snooping and interfering in their recreational use of illicit drugs.
To falsely prattle on about how this is a victimless crime where no one is harmed is a mortal insult to every police officer who has put their life on the line to protect people from this contamination.
It is a mortal insult to every -- victim -- of some ‘poor recreational drug user’ who has somehow gone inexplicably rabid. It is a contrived denial of proven facts that have obviously gone -- right up someone’s nose.
Posting anonymous drug-pushing prattle that use of illicit drugs is not a crime will never be mistaken for -- closet lobbying -- to change drug laws. If people really believe these laws need to be changed they are free to organize and -- publicly -- work for that change.
Posted by ChrisPia on March 15, 2008 at 5:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Search This "Full Circle with Bush Criminal Enterprise" By Wayne Madsen. This might Be of Insight. Maybe?
Posted by sumDJiam on March 15, 2008 at 5:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
GROOVY? I CAN DIG IT BROTHA! TP, in regards to wether i'll be spinning anymore tunes before taking off, probably as a co-DJ, it seems (i'm always a co-something huh) I dont think i'll ever get my own gig in being that I've been out of the DJ circuit, and any bar that endorses me, well, endorses drugs. lol
Posted by Joe on March 15, 2008 at 6:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
No Archdude, Im not snortin, but your girl just left...she was...
Posted by ChrisPia on March 15, 2008 at 6:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
http://www.insider-magazine.com/MadsenFu...
Posted by ChrisPia on March 15, 2008 at 6:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Witherspoon on CofCC: I’m a member
By Adam Fogle | - 3:16 pm - Posted in U.S. Congress
He’s been a U.S. Senate candidate — if you can even really call him that — for less than three weeks now in an election that’s more than six months away, but former RNC National Committeeman Buddy Witherspoon is already embroiled in a mess that threatens to sink his fledgling campaign. And rather than deal with it, he’s chosen to take the Bill Clinton approach and deny, deny, deny.
The Palmetto Scoop wrote Tuesday that Witherspoon has alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan and is a card-carrying member of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC), from which he was asked to resign by numerous national and state party officials. But on Wednesday, he vehemently denied those charges, telling the Spartanburg Herald Journal that it was “absurd” to suggest he was ever a member of such a group.
Some political Web sites on Tuesday claimed that Witherspoon had ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens as recently as 1999. The organization has been branded a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League and says in its mission statement that it opposes “all efforts to mix the races of mankind.”
The group’s Web site posted Witherspoon’s campaign schedule.
“Those claims are totally absurd,” Witherspoon said. “It’s unfortunate that just because you disagree with an individual and stand up to the plate that this sort of thing happens. I’ve been to one meeting years ago where I introduced a U.S. congressman, and that was it.” [CHRISTINE BOUSH - Herald Journal]
But in 1999, Witherspoon was quoted in the Washington Post as saying he belonged to the group, which the story said was created from the ashes of the segregationist White Citizens Councils, the John Birch Society and activists in the presidential campaigns of then-Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace.
In South Carolina, Republican National Committeeman Buddy Witherspoon is a member of the group. It was at his invitation that Barr addressed a national council meeting in Charleston last year.
Witherspoon said: “I’m a member. I’m not that active, I don’t go to all the things.” He described the organization as a regular conservative advocacy group. “They have always been people I have had no problem with,” he said. “Everything to me is fine from what I see and hear.” [THOMAS B. EDSALL - Washington Post]
Yes, a “regular conservative advocacy group” that claims it’s mission is to “oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called ‘affirmative action’ and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.
Photo: Buddy Witherspoon. Courtesy of Spartanburg Herald Journal.
Posted by ChrisPia on March 15, 2008 at 6:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
That article was from the palmetto scoop.
Posted by ChrisPia on March 15, 2008 at 6:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hey Hash. Did Mom work In Specialinvestigations in Air Force? Did Dad Work for Richard Hines?
Posted by topsyturvy on March 15, 2008 at 8:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thomas1776 : listen, go on and on with the false shet, but PLEASE, it's "too" when you mean "in addition to"!!!
God spare me.
Posted by topsyturvy on March 15, 2008 at 8:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
ughhh, sexy, uh I mean LexyLady, ignorance is NOT bliss when you are posting on a drug case that is still ongoing. Have you ever heard of IP addresses! Oh, that's right, you're getting Pasquale confused with Pablo Escabar. You might better go back to watching American Idol reruns.
Posted by sumDJiam on March 15, 2008 at 9:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
AMERICAN IDOL: REUNITED is awesome!!! becuase I know Pasquale, its just so funny still that she confused him and Pablo, or that she'd never heard of him. She probably thinks Al Pacino's "Scarface" is based on a true story. I know its not AL PACINO's i mean the character.
Posted by Joe on March 15, 2008 at 10:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Did I strike a nerve Archdude, Thomas1776? You two sound like little girls. If you cant handle it when someone disagrees with you, or doesent share your sanctimonious views, then you shouldn't enter into a public forum. Just because you both are frustrated with your meger little lives as failures doesn't give you the right to vent your frustrations out on me. You stated your opinions...I stated mine...But you both took it a step further when you attacked me for simply not agreeing with you. You guys are too stressed, too uptight...and perhaps we got off on the wrong foot. So let me make it up to you. As a peace offering I'll rent you both a hotel room...you both can spend the night together "relieving one another"...cry me river.
Posted by cnstreet on March 15, 2008 at 10:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why is it that every discussion thread on every freaking website has to have some conspiracy theory obsessed loser jumping in with their comments that have nothing to do with the actual article?
Posted by topsyturvy on March 15, 2008 at 11:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
DJ, u catch my wink?
Posted by sumDJiam on March 16, 2008 at 12:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
huh? no.
Posted by topsyturvy on March 16, 2008 at 11:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
hmmm. thought u were hash.
Posted by sumDJiam on March 16, 2008 at 2:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
your wink? what r u talkin 'bout?
Posted by topsyturvy on March 16, 2008 at 2:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
DJ,
Courtroom, u were leaving.
Posted by BillMan on March 16, 2008 at 2:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
DJ,
Are these guys yet too be indicted highrollers, i.e. rich middle aged or older white males, are there names as prominent as Ravenel's?
Posted by topsyturvy on March 16, 2008 at 3:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
They are much wealthier.
Posted by BillMan on March 16, 2008 at 5:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Who could be wealthier than Ravenel?
Posted by BPFROM843 on March 16, 2008 at 7:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
ravenel and miller will be lucky if they are not killed for snitching its funny there are so many politicians and judges and cops that do just as much coke as ravenel and now they want to step up their efforts if they would step up there efforts out of the country they might have more luck all they are doin is filling up the jails with drug dealers that other dealers fill the void the problem has been around for 50 years its not goin anywhere
Posted by Joe on March 16, 2008 at 7:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mayor, I'd be more than happy to meet you at Condons...
Just because you ware your underware backwords and shet do-nuts and your sister broke up with you doesnt mean you have to take it out on me...
Posted by sumDJiam on March 16, 2008 at 8:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
OH, was that you I said I'd wink at? You nonbeliever. lol. I winked on my way out at the TV camera, but that clip never made the final cut, shame. But hey, I did dress for a funeral, like i said i was...WHO THE HECK COULD BE WEALTHIER than Ravenel, at least amongst those involved. I don't know when these other old white dudes will see thier indictments handed to em, but I'll bet they get aquitted of all charges. Nobody as far as i'm concerned any more prominent that Ravenel, but will still come as at least a mild shock. I got an interview with the P&C still in progress in which we discuss others like the actual owner of the paper being involved...
Posted by topsyturvy on March 16, 2008 at 8:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
BPFROM843: They're too afraid to "step up" their efforts out of the country or even IN this country. They know if they come up against the actual drug lords and dealers, their lives will actually be at stake. SC government doesn't pay them enuf to do that. They just need big names to justify their incomes, justify their happy middle class lives. They don't even want to come close to the real sources of the drugs!
Posted by topsyturvy on March 16, 2008 at 8:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
i know exactly of whom you are talking.
Posted by topsyturvy on March 16, 2008 at 8:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
DJ, it was in the courtroom. BillMan, I hate to sound mean, but I know what you are. Even got an idea who! You're just trying to get shet for your story. Why don't you buy a plane ticket to Colombia and cover the REAL WAR on drugs, instead of trying to use gossipy tidbits to earn your bread.
Posted by sumDJiam on March 16, 2008 at 9:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with topsyturvy on the issue of going after the real drug lords or even a kingpin. (there's a difference) anyways, me(Miller) and Ravenel wont be LUCKY that no one comes after us since the SOPRANOS is no longer airing new episodes.
Posted by topsyturvy on March 16, 2008 at 10:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
DJ,
Yeah, b/c the police only go after the real drug kings on TV, not in real life.
Posted by BillMan on March 16, 2008 at 11:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If you have already served three months, than 7 more is not a huge deal, at least it's not 5 or 10 years, do you know where your going yet, what is the 3 years of supervision afterwards about?
Posted by sumDJiam on March 17, 2008 at 12:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
dont know yet, maybe beaufort. 3 years supervised release is a fancy term for PROBATION. lol
Posted by BillMan on March 17, 2008 at 1:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Topsy,
Didnt quite make that major in college, law enforcement neither, citizen will do me fine!