Last Week’s Drug Arrests Nabbed 10

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Shenandoah Valley Herald:

Raids Came After Two Years Of Investigations, More Charges Likely

By Jimmy LaRoue



Edinburg - “Shag” has been snagged.
And so have nine other men in a drug sting by the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
County deputies and federal agents arrested Richie Hansford “Shag” Conner, 53, at his house in Edinburg Sept. 11.
He is being charged with eight counts of knowingly and intentionally distributing and possessing – with intent to distribute – 500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine.
Search warrants were executed at his home, and at the business Conner owns, Shag’s Lumber Yard, on Old Valley Pike south of Edinburg, the sheriff’s office said.
The arrest follows a two-year investigation by the sheriff’s department and federal authorities.
“For years, we suspected this activity on the drug side,” said Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy C. Carter. At first, Carter said there was “never anything more than suspicion.”
Carter said he has heard some of the rumors floating around the last week about Conner’s arrest, particularly with associations Conner may have had and how he spent his money.
“I don’t try and glamorize the guy,” Carter said. “In my mind, he was dealing drugs and that’s nothing to glamorize about.”

Said Carter: “People have made him into this mythical figure. But he’s not a mythical figure to me. He’s a drug dealer.”
The sheriff acknowledged that Conner knew “a lot of people.”
“But that doesn’t mean any of them are tied up in the investigation,” Carter said.
The investigation is ongoing, he said, and believes there will be more indictments and charges coming for Conner.

“I’m pretty confident of that,” Carter said.
He said that could take several months, though, as deputies and the IRS have to go through his financial records.
“His finances were very diverse, so that’ll take awhile,” Carter said.
In addition, county deputies and federal agents arrested nine other men last week, including six from Winchester, for conspiring to sell, give or distribute a controlled substance – believed to be cocaine.
All nine were arrested at 9175 John Marshall Highway in Lebanon Church. Conner owned the home where the nine arrests took place, but Carter did not elaborate on whether there was any further connection between the men and Conner.
The men arrested include Florentine Bautista-Martinez, 33, of Winchester, Marcelo Sanchez-Cypriano, 24, of Winchester, Luis Antonio Busts-Ramirez, 33, of Martinsburg, W.Va., William Gilbert Spence, Jr., 51, of Strasburg, Daniel Edward Santiago-Enriques, 28, of Winchester, Andres Onzura-Burciaga, 28, of Winchester, Rigoberto Manchame, 29, of Cincinnati, Ohio, Jonathan Ortiz-Hernandez, 21, of Winchester and Raul Armando Vega, 32, of Winchester.
Bautista-Martinez, Sanchez-Cypriano, Busts-Ramirez and Spence, as Conner, were arrested Sept. 11. The others were arrested two days later. The estimate street value of drugs seized in those two raids was between $65,000 and $140,000.
All but one of the eight Hispanic suspects have identified as illegal immigrants. Vega is the lone immigrant in the country legally, but he’s wanted in Ohio on other drug charges, according to the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office.
Carter said the IRS and DEA were helpful in making the county’s case.
The nine men are being held in the Shenandoah County jail without bond, with a court date set for Sept. 28 at 9 a.m. in General District Court.
Conner is held without bond, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Harrisonburg declined to say where he is being held. No trial date has been set, according to Bruce Pagel, an assistant U.S. Attorney based out of Harrisonburg.