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NCSO Investigation Yields Guilty Plea to Drug Conspiracy

08/25/2015

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, announced today that KERENSA KAELENE MARA, age 38, JAMES WESTLEY RADFORD, age 28, MARQUIS WAYNE BRANDT a/k/a Mark Brandt, age 40, all of Eufaula, Oklahoma and REBEL LYNN CRABTREE, age 47, of Checotah, Oklahoma, pled guilty to Drug Conspiracy, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846.

Charges arose from an investigation by the Navarro County Sheriff’s Department in Texas, the District 18 District Attorney’s Drug Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General. The defendants were indicted in July 2015.

The Indictment alleged that beginning in or about October 2014 and continuing to in or about January 2015, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma and elsewhere, the defendants knowingly and intentionally agreed together, with each other, and with other persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to illegally obtain Schedule II and IV controlled substances by means of presenting fraudulent prescriptions to pharmacies and conspired to possess with intent to distribute and distribute Schedule II and IV controlled substances.

As part of the conspiracy the defendants would obtain stolen prescription pads, legitimate DEA numbers and copies of doctor’s signatures from the Jack C. Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center, for the purpose of forging prescriptions of controlled substances. The defendants would recruit people to present those forged prescriptions on their behalf in return for pay and then distribute the fraudulently obtained illegal drugs or trade illegal drugs for other drugs.

MARA and CRABTREE both are former employees at the Jack C. Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Muskogee.

The Honorable Steven P. Shreder, Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, in Muskogee, accepted the guilty pleas and ordered the completion of pre-sentence reports. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled following their completions.

The statutory range of punishment is up to 20 years imprisonment, up to a $1,000,000 fine or both.