Wednesday, May 14, 2008
As we have been doing along the way in these last few weeks, when we find connections leading directly to other cases we have covered, we are connecting the dots for our readers, which actually may not be necessary, because most of our readers are usually ahead of me to begin with.
As we pointed out in the Feature Story several weeks ago, organized crime, drug gangs, money laundering and the like, do not recognize boundaries. What is going on in Polk County relative to drugs, can, and probably does tie directly in to Chattooga County, and impacts Floyd, and perhaps runs through Alabama on its way. (See Archives, Feature Story, “Connecting the Dots”).
Last week, as we covered the Kevin Redstrom trial, a co-conspirator along with Mario Armas and Lonnie Merren, both already convicted and sentenced, we kept hearing about Carl Black Dealerships. As in Part I of this week’s series, (below), we began to look at connections between this case and Chattooga County. From this case, we linked un-indicted coconspirator, Jimmy Collins, to Chattooga County, and, we linked recently indicted Chattooga County Drug Smugglers Michael Leon Smith and Geronimo Enrique Gastelum, by comparing their M.O. in marijuana smuggling, and money laundering techniques through legal gambling and real estate purchases.
Then, we started on to the Summerville connection to Carl Black.
We have already covered several personalities, like Larry Haney, a part owner in the Hiram, Georgia Carl Black Trailer Company, where Kevin Redstrom was employed, and conspired to defraud the government of New Mexico. We also noted Mike Bowser, whose name is not on any current corporate paperwork, but whom I am assured runs the show.
It should be noted that of fourteen Carl Black businesses in Georgia through the years, seven of those have been represented by John P. Hines, of Kennesaw, Georgia, and are still in business. Seven have been represented by the firm of Moore, Ingram, Johnson & Steele, out of Marietta, Georgia. The stores in Hiram, where Redstrom worked, and the Summerville Ford dealership which has now closed its doors, as well as the Canton real estate business, which is also defunct, now, are/were all represented by M,I,J&S.
Carl Black Automotive Group, LLC
Carl Black Buick, Pontiac GMC Truck, Inc. (M,I,J&S)
Carl Black Chevrolet of Nashville, LLC
Carl Black Chevrolet, LLC
Carl Black Ford, LLC (M,I,J&S)
Carl Black Hummer, LLC
Carl Black of Doral, LLC
Carl Black of Orlando, LLC
Carl Black of Sarasota, LLC
Carl Black Pontiac Buick GMC Hummer, LLC (M,I,J&S)
Carl Black Realty of Canton, LLC (M,I,J&S)
Carl Black Trailer Company, LLC (M,I,J&S)
Carl Black’s Auto Super Store II, LLC (M,I,J&S)
Carl Black’s Super Store, LLC (M,I,J&S)
The following narrative has been provided by a source of mine, who has studied the Carl Black Management structure more than I, and who is familiar with the local Chattooga County players.
Carl Black Summerville Structure -
“Summerville was the only Ford dealership in the Carl Black family, and
business was not good. Carl Black had someone from corporate there
almost at all times, whether it was the CFO, (Sal), or the V.P. Gary Wexler. During this time Mr. Wexler was negotiating on behalf of Carl Black to sell the dealership to local investors.
Donnie Hall was the front man for the local investors. He was the one doing the negotiating with Carl Black, and was going to run the dealership. In fact, the deal was so close to being closed that he had filed paperwork and registered “Friendly Ford” as the dealership name.
The actual money partners were who themselves hung around or who sent their representatives to check things out were, among others, Albert Palmour, Lewis Smith (former owner of the Ford dealership, current owner of the property), and Henry Mason. The deal was pulled at the last minute, but Lewis Smith had gone so far as to go to the dealership to facilitate the “change over” between owners before it fell through.
Lewis Smith and Donnie Hall both landed on their feet at Trucktown, “owned” by Billy Joe Dooley, Albert Palmour’s good buddy.
Carl Black ended up giving a stake in the dealership to outsiders, who like
others in the “Carl Black Ownership Program” could not afford to
operate when every person in Kennesaw was taking a BIG cut of every
sale. By the time Carl Black, Mike Bowser (Pres.) and Gary Wexler (V.P) got their money, there was little left for the business to operate.
The name was changed to “Summerville Ford“, and anything to do with Carl Black taken out, building painted, etc. Guess who the primary owner of Summerville Ford was - Carl Black. The name change and management change was done because they figured the people of Chattooga County were tired of the way they had been treated by Carl Black, and wouldn’t know better. Mercifully, Carl Black/ Summerville Ford was finally closed by Ford Motor Company as a low performing dealership”.
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Now, for those not familiar with Chattooga County, and Summerville in particular, I will just tell you that I have had sources, from several walks of life, tell me that when a new shipment of vehicles would come in, folks from the town, prominent folks, would start cruising by and stopping by Trucktown, owned by Billy Joe Dooley. The same prominent folks would come in regularly, always in a cluster of a short period of time, over and over again. Not vehicle customers. These people never purchased a vehicle from Mr. Dooley, But, they have been seen leaving money for Mr. Dooley, or handing money to Mr. Dooley.
And as Forrest Gump would say, “That’s all I have to say about that”.
I have also heard from several sources that Albert Palmour is a silent partner with Billy Joe Dooley, in Trucktown. Albert Palmour. We all should know the litany by now, but in case you are new, these, among other things are Albert Palmour’s recent claims to fame:
1. Albert Palmour - Represented former Chattooga County resident, Billy Ray Lackey in one of the largest Hispanic Drug Gang Cases ever prosecuted in the State of Georgia.
2. Albert Palmour - Represents recently indicted Chattooga County Co-conspirator, Michael Leon Smith, whose pattern of drug smuggling and money laundering is a carbon copy of the Mario Armas Criminal Enterprise.
3. Albert Palmour - Implicated in the 2006 Election Fraud scandal, as it was his postage meter used to meter many of the absentee ballots which showed up to swing the State Court Judge seat from Sam Finster to Carlton Vines. Remember that nineteen of them were sequentially metered.
4. Albert Palmour - Almost had the Carl Black ties, but for the low performance of that dealership causing it to be shut down, now has a silent partnership with Trucktown.
Now, you see much of the picture shaping up, but there is another aspect of car dealerships, not necessarily Carl Black, which we still need to cover. You see, there is a gambling perspective which ties all of these counties together, and which ties together the Mario Armas-Kevin Redstrom-Lonnie Merren case with Chattooga County, and which has its fingers in an area dealership.
Parkey Tarvin, is an unseen person in all of this. Parkey Tarvin was originally from Floyd County, and went to school with a lot of folks I know. Parkey is a professional gambler, in legal gambling, but is also a known book maker, in illegal gambling trades. Parkey always seems to land on his feet, and it was supposedly his 7-9 million dollars hidden in his ex-wife’s home here in Rome, which prompted Mario Armas to plan a heist at her residence.
Last week, Armas downplayed the rumor of millions hidden there, and said it was just a ruse to set up the guys who were executing the burglary. That makes no sense to me, but that is what he testified to.
Now, Parkey Tarvin used to make book and run gambling games around town, here in Rome, and elsewhere throughout Northwest Georgia and Metro Atlanta, and over in to Alabama, as well. There are still games going on here locally, and according to one older gentleman whom I interviewed at the first of the year, Parkey still has his finger in the profits of these illegal games. But part of the whole set up to launder the money from these illegal gambling games is to take regular LEGAL junkets to Tunica, Mississippi, to legal gambling hot spots. It is the same M.O. Mario Armas and Bob Saylors used to launder money. It is the same for Michael Leon Smith, the Faulkners and Gastelum, up in Chattooga County.
But sources tell me that Parkey Tarvin has a man here locally, who is affiliated with an area car dealership, which is not doing so well. Rumor has it that Tarvin and his man have brought in professional gamblers, and local good old boys are not too sure what’s up with that. The games are changing, and instead of a few tables of gentlemen who have known each other for a long time, playing for a little change and bragging rights, the stakes have gotten high, and the faces are those of strangers.
There was even an Hispanic hanging around a couple of months ago, with a heavy accent and more than ten thousand dollars in cash, flashing it around. That was a few weeks before the body of an Hispanic was found floating in Lake Weiss, hands bound behind his back, and unspeakable things done to his body.
Drugs, Hispanic Drug Gangs, gambling, money laundering, attorneys, cowboys, and car dealers. It is the stuff of movies and John Grisham novels, but it is a fact that this culture is thriving right here in Floyd County, in Polk County, in Chattooga County, and beyond. It has crossed over to infest Alabama counties along our border, and continues over in to Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and all the way to Arizona and New Mexico.
It is an infestation, an epidemic, a disease, and it starts with local folks keeping their heads buried in the sand, slapping each other on the back, telling each other everything is fine, while looking the other way - not demanding that our judges follow the law, and lead lives which cannot be influenced by those who know their secrets. Why do we as the people of Northwest Georgia not care that some judges have illegal ex parte meetings, and some of our judges binge drink and frequent strip clubs. Why does it not matter to us when judges use the court rooms for their own personal vendettas, or that others protect their favorite drug supplier from prosecution.
When will the caliber of people we groom to run for judicial positions be more important than whether we have a foot bridge, or one more contrived award for our medical community or industrial community?
I love Northwest Georgia, but we have to wake up to the realities which are killing our children, and robbing us blind. We need to identify those who would hold us hostage in our own country. There is an enemy here, and it is our own complacency and ignorance.
Teresa Watson
As the Jury Deliberates
Monday Morning - May 12, 2008
Several things occurred on Friday, May 9, 2008, which prompted me to check out some things, and connect a few more dots, to help my readers understand how things are related in the Mario Armas-Lonnie Merren-Kevin Redstrom Drug Conspiracy. The jury will continue deliberating, Monday, on Kevin Redstrom’s charges. Mario Armas and Lonnie Merren were both sentenced in December 21, 2007, after taking Plea Deals.
The first item which concerned me, was when Larry Haney took the stand on behalf of Kevin Redstrom, during the Defense phase of last week’s trial. He seemed sincere, low key, but very fond of Kevin Redstrom, both as a person, and as an employee.
Larry Haney is a part owner of Carl Black Trailer Company, LLC , and on Friday, he detailed how the company sought out the best possible Bloomer Trailer salesman in the country, to sell their new line of trailers. Kevin Redstrom, who was born and raised in Arizona, was recommended to the Carl Black owners, and so they wooed he and his girlfrined, Kristi Ray, from Arizona, where they owned their own Bloomer Trailer dealership, to Carl Black in Hiram, Georgia.
Haney testified, under oath, that Redstrom’s contract with Carl Black Trailers, was $6,000.00 per month, PLUS Bonuses, and included, after a time, part ownership in the Carl Black Trailers, LLC. Larry Haney told the court that Redstrom was making all of his bonuses, and was such a fine salesman, that by the time he left in 2003, Redstrom owned 20% of the Carl Black Trailer Dealership.
Haney also explained that Kristie Ray worked as Kevin Redstrom’s secretary, and shared his salary.
But when Assistant United States Attorney, Lisa Tarvin, cross examined Larry Haney, she re-questioned Haney about Carl Black’s contract with Redstrom. She then asked him to look at part of the Government’s Exhibit, #51, which had already been introduced in to evidence. There were several items she walked him through, including a letter, preceding a garnishment, from the New Mexico DFACS, asking Carl Black to verify that Redstrom’s gross monthly income was $5,000. per month, (not the $6,000 plus bonuses that Redstrom was actually receiving).
The second item was the response letter, from Carl Black, on Carl Black stationary, asserting that Kevin Redstrom’s gross salary was ONLY $1,250.00 semi-monthly, or, $2,500 per month. A far cry from $6,000.00 per month.
Kevin Redstrom and Carl Black Trailers colluded to defraud the New Mexico State Government, in order to help Redstrom avoid paying the child support his children deserved.
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Posted on May 11th, 2008.
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