20 charges filed in Houston for cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking

About 300 federal and local police officers swept through the Houston area early Wednesday morning, arresting more than a dozen suspected drug traffickers accused of trafficking kilos of cocaine and methamphetamine into the region.

The arrests are part of a broader effort by the Justice Department to combat violent crime in the nation’s fourth-largest city, they were announced Thursday by Alamdar Hamdani, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas.

Prosecutors and investigators said the most prominent suspect, 35-year-old Alfred Jacoby Green, is a suspected leader of the “Rich Kingz” gang and the organizer of the busted drug trafficking ring. Hamdani said the Rich Kingz operate out of southwest Houston and smuggle cocaine and methamphetamine throughout Houston, as well as other states stretching as far east as Ohio and Virginia.

Doug Williams, FBI special agent in charge of Houston, said he hopes the arrests will help investigators “connect the dots between several cases, including unsolved homicides.”

“Drug trafficking in Houston and across the United States is a pervasive problem that continues to cost lives,” Hamdani said. “It costs lives through the violence that goes hand in hand with drug trafficking. It costs lives through the deaths of people who overdose on those drugs. It costs lives in the communities that are left devastated and ruined in its wake.”

Prosecutors said the other suspects were not gang members, though they conspired with Green to traffic drugs. The suspects include Jessica Ferguson, 34, a Sheldon ISD third-grade teacher who is accused of participating in the conspiracy while on the job.

“You could hear the kids in the background” while Ferguson was on the phone, Hamdani said.

In a statement, Sheldon officials confirmed Ferguson’s arrest, adding that it did not occur in front of students, and said she has been placed on administrative leave. They declined to comment further, citing privacy laws.

A total of 20 people were indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month in connection with the investigation. Most are charged with conspiracy to distribute drugs or possession with intent to distribute. The drug charges carry mandatory minimum sentences of five to 20 years in prison, depending on the amount of the drug and any prior convictions.

Ten people were charged with illegal possession of a firearm or illegal possession of a firearm that had been converted into a machine gun. Detectives seized 10 firearms as part of the raid.

Several top Houston-area police officials, including recently appointed Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Fort Bend County Sheriff Eric Fagan, joined Hamdani and Williams in announcing the arrests.

Authorities said they have arrested more than 65 “violent offenders,” seized more than 130 firearms and seized about $1.3 million since federal officials announced two years ago that fighting violent crime in Houston would be a priority. The FBI and Hamdani announced a similar takedown to Thursday’s in September 2023, arresting and charging 39 people with similar crimes in that case.

“These numbers are just a fraction of what the FBI and our partners contribute every day to combating violent crime in our city,” said Williams, who was named special agent in charge of the Houston bureau in January.

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