On August 17 the Eureka Springs Police Dept. was a participating member of a multiple agency drug and money laundering investigation which was led by Homeland Security with assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, according to an ESPD press release.
The following day U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, Kenneth Elser, released a statement that 13 people had been arrested by local, state and federal law enforcement following a year-long investigation into methamphetamine and heroin trafficking in Boone, Baxter, Searcy, Newton, Carroll and Washington Counties. Nine defendants were arrested on federal charges and four on state charges.
For much of 2017, ESPD in conjunction with the Dept. of Homeland Security, DEA and FBI, conducted a separate, but related, operation resulting in the arrest of four individuals in Eureka Springs for suspicion of trafficking heroin.
Those arrested Thursday include, but are not limited to:
- Ricky Dwayne Moles, 56, of Harrison
- Vance Lynn Parnin, Jr., 48, of Berryville
- Eric Lynn Friend, 39, of Harrison
- Ricky William Akins, 59, of Lead Hill
- Brittnee Nicole Perkins, 27, of Harrison
- Julia Nicole Holley, 31, of Little Rock
- Amy Leann Friend-Hagler, 37, of Greenbrier
- Bobby Gene Ellis, Jr., 44, of Harrison
- Melissa Haley Childs, 30, of Harrison