BY NOLAN CLAY nclay@opubco.com
©Copyright 2013, The Oklahoman
In state prison since 2004 for robbery, inmate Marsial “Oso” Garcia still found a way to operate a major drug ring, federal authorities say.
He used smuggled cellphones, authorities say.
Garcia, 31, pleaded guilty last week in Oklahoma City federal court to cocaine distribution and a money-laundering conspiracy involving more than $200,000.
He will be sentenced later.
Beginning in November 2011, from prison, Garcia arranged with suppliers in California and elsewhere to send “multi-pound quantities of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and other illegal narcotics” to Oklahoma for distribution, according to a federal indictment against 11 other defendants.
The drugs were stored at a “stash house” in Norman, according to the indictment.
Some of those drugs made their way into Oklahoma prisons, the FBI said.
Garcia was identified by the FBI and by Oklahoma City police as a leader of the SUR Movement prison gang.
Leaders in the gang do not carry their own cellphones, FBI Special Agent James Furr testified at a hearing in July.
Garcia especially would not want to be caught with a cellphone since he had been close to getting out of prison.
“So other individuals that are going to be in longer will hold the phone for him, especially when they think there's going to be a search or things of that nature,” the agent testified.
Three other inmates are accused of roles in the drug ring.
One inmate was described by the FBI agent as a facilitator who used contraband cellphones to “have individuals deliver stuff to other individuals.”
Separate case
Garcia is facing a separate state assault and conspiracy case that accuses him of ordering the shooting of another inmate's son.
Oklahoma City police reported the gunmen shot a 13-year-old boy and the boy's mother by mistake.
Both victims survived the January attack.
An informant told police that Garcia and two other SUR Movement gang leaders ordered the shooting during “a three-way phone call” from prison, according to a police affidavit.
Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the state case.
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