fugitive busted after 11yrs in detroit drug case

‘Bad Girls’ fugitive arrested after 11-year chase
Robert Snell , The Detroit News Published 9:02 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2017 | Updated 15 hours ago
Annette Sanchez
(Photo: America’s Most Wanted)

Detroit — Federal agents have captured a fugitive exotic dancer following an 11-year search stretching from Detroit to Mexico that solves a mystery surrounding the most lucrative drug case in Michigan history.

The capture of Annette Sanchez and a second fugitive serves as an intriguing postscript to an international drug investigation that involved more than 30 people, 66,000 pounds of marijuana, $178 million in drug proceeds and former NBA player Robert “Tractor” Traylor.

Her long flight from justice, fading memories and lack of incentive for alleged co-conspirators — many of whom have completed prison sentences — to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office pose challenges for prosecutors, legal experts said.

Sanchez, 35, allegedly doubled as a courier hauling millions of dollars from Metro Detroit to marijuana suppliers in Arizona. She was caught Nov. 27 after crossing the Mexican border into Douglas, Arizona, a surprise given her success dodging federal agents and notoriety from being profiled on a 2007 episode of “America’s Most Wanted” devoted to “Bad Girls.”

“That is an interesting twist,” said Capt. Keith Frye of the Troy Police Department, which was involved in the drug investigation.

She is being held without bond and is due in federal court early next month.

Annette Sanchez (circa 2016)
Annette Sanchez (circa 2016) (Photo: Midland County Jail)
Sanchez was the champagne-sipping, pole-dancing girlfriend of Giovanni Ruanova, an alleged upper echelon member of the drug ring who is accused of helping oversee delivery of marijuana from Arizona to Detroit. The couple disappeared in 2005 but Sanchez’s capture has raised the possibility she might lead investigators to the missing man, assuming he is alive.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and her lawyer will not discuss her capture, so much of Sanchez’s flight from justice remains unknown.

Sanchez’s capture came quietly. The U.S. Marshals Service, which hunts fugitives, did not announce her arrest. Neither did the DEA, which as recently as last week listed Sanchez on its fugitive website.

“We appreciate the perseverance of the U.S. Marshals Service as they continue their pursuit of fugitives, no matter how long they have been in hiding,” DEA Special Agent Rich Isaacson told The Detroit News.

Sanchez has been missing so long, the U.S. Attorney in Detroit in 2005, Stephen Murphy, is now a federal judge. Sanchez has been missing so long, drug kingpin Quasand Lewis of West Bloomfield, is nearing the end of an 18-year federal prison sentence.


Map: Operation Falling Star
Lewis, 46, is at a Florida prison and scheduled to be released in March 2019.

A 16-month investigation started with a March 2004 raid at a Novi hotel that turned up more than $3.4 million in cash and coded drug ledgers. A search at a nearby home in Northville uncovered $1.4 million in drug proceeds.

The investigation focused on Lewis and a drug ring that imported marijuana and cocaine from Arizona. The investigation included raids at dozens of locations across Metro Detroit where his drug ring stored guns, cash and drugs.

In May 2004, she was returning to Arizona after picking up drug proceeds with her boyfriend, according to court records. Oklahoma Highway Patrol investigators searched the car and found $1,768,069 stuffed in duffel bags.

Sanchez was indicted July 18, 2005, alongside almost two dozen other people. Eventually, 32 people would be charged.

She was charged with money-laundering conspiracy — a 20-year felony.

In all, federal agents seized $18 million worth of assets during the investigation, including a limousine, Corvettes and jewelry.

The case against Lewis entangled the drug kingpin’s cousin, former University of Michigan and NBA basketball player Robert “Tractor” Traylor.

Lewis hid more than $178 million in drug proceeds, and Traylor admitted he recorded in his name two rental properties that were owned by Lewis.

Sanchez is the second fugitive involved in the case to return to Detroit in recent months.

In July, alleged drug dealer Israel “Shorty” Corral made an initial appearance in federal court after being extradited from Mexico where he was working as a car salesman, according to court testimony.

He was captured in Los Reyes, Mexico, two years ago during an operation involving Interpol, according to published reports.

Corral is accused of obtaining marijuana from Arizona suppliers and coordinating drug shipments to Detroit. The quantities ranged from 150 pounds to several thousand pounds, according to court records.

If convicted, Corral faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

Aside from the three fugitives, prosecutors secured convictions against 28 people.

“This is was one of the most solid cases you will ever find,” Novi Police Chief David Molloy said. “Not one of them went to trial.”

Sanchez might not stand trial, either.

“The further down the road you go, the real challenge is memories have faded and the leverage the government has over cooperating witnesses has largely dissipated,” said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor. “No criminal case ages well, unlike French wine.”

Sanchez, a fringe player in the drug case, likely will be offered a plea deal, Henning said.

“I don’t think the government has a real strong appetite to have this case go to trial,” he said. “Their message is ‘you’re not going to escape justice,’ but the pressure of being able to win a case after this many years is difficult. There is incentive on each side to come to some resolution. At some point, being charged with a crime does weigh on you.”

The criminal case against most members of the drug ring ended with 11 law enforcement agencies splitting more than $3.7 million seized during the investigation.

Novi Police spent its share — more than $1.6 million — building a state-of-the-art firearms training center.

“We built that in 2008,” Molloy said.

By then, Sanchez had been missing for three years. Law enforcement officials circulated photos of her as a fresh-faced 20-something, wearing a revealing outfit and holding a champagne glass.

The photos contrast with a recent mugshot that hints at a stressful end to 11 years on the run.

“I can’t even imagine,” Molloy said.

Scorsese,

Said it before and will say it again...the CRAZIEST stories come out of Detroit. If it's not the case of the "mystery traveling Phantom", it's about guys wearing fez hats running from the Feds, or about woman dodging Feds for over a decade being caught doing EXACTLY what she was wanted for in the first place.



Keep em coming. Always worth reading.

Do you think it was worth her fleeing for 11 years for something that the main target of the investigation quasand lewis only got 18 years for?

She might have been out way before now.

If you are going to run from the Feds...you'd better leave country to one that doesn't extradite. Not only did she stay in the country, but she was doing the illegal activity that they wanted her for.

Scorsese, not only is the main target about to come home, but the NBA player they mentioned,the cousin, passed away years ago.

the good news for her is that article implies that she'll plea and do a short sentence

write up by gangsterreport

OPERATION FALLING STAR REDUX: STRIPPER, REPUTED MULE LINKED TO DETROIT DRUG CHIEF QUASAND LEWIS CAUGHT IN ARIZONA
Scott BurnsteinAfrican-American and Detroit and Drug Gangs and Featured and Midwest and West Coast

One of the previous two remaining fugitives from the Detroit DEA’s highly-successfully Operation Falling Star targeting Quasand (Q Dawg) Lewis’s almost 200-million dollar narcotics empire was apprehended in recent months after more than a decade on the run. Former exotic dancer and accused drug mule Annette Sanchez, 35, was nabbed trying to cross the border from Mexico into the United States using an entry point in Arizona back in November over Thanksgiving weekend. That leaves her boyfriend Giovanni (Big G) Ruanova, one of Lewis’ main lieutenants, as the lone co-defendant in the case remaining at-large and left to still face the music.



The Lewis organization, the Motor City’s biggest marijuana wholesale distributors of the late 1990s and early 2000s, was crushed by a summer 2005 federal indictment – a total of 32 people were arrested and charged with selling more than 66,000 bricks of weed worth 180 million bucks. The 46-year old Lewis is currently serving a 19-year prison sentence in a low-security federal correctional facility down in Florida. He’s scheduled to be paroled in 2019.

Also indicted in the Operation Falling Star case was Lewis’ first cousin and deceased pro basketball player Robert Traylor, a college All-American at the University of Michigan and 1998 NBA first-round draft pick, who helped Lewis hide his money with a fraudulent tax return tied to a pair of real estate properties (two Detroit-area apartment complexes). Traylor died of a sudden heart attack in 2011 and was cut by the last NBA franchise he suited up for (the Cleveland Cavaliers), at least partially, due to him getting embroiled in his cousins’ legal affairs.

Ruanova allegedly oversaw Lewis’ smuggling and transportation operations, coordinating loads ranging from 100 pounds to well more than 1,000 pounds of narcotics, from Mexico to Michigan via Arizona. Sanchez coordinated most of the drivers responsible for transporting the drugs and cash. Ruanova’s man on the ground in Arizona, Israel (Shorty) Corral, took off when the indictment landed in 2005 too. Corral was finally taken into custody by U.S. Marshals in 2015 living in Mexico working as a car salesman.

Lewis’ empire was shaken by a street war in late 2002 that lasted until 2004. Then simple bad luck stepped in, a crazy twist of fate inadvertently tipping the feds off to the true breadth and scope of Lewis’ dealings and opening the book on the Operation Falling Star investigation.

In early 2002, Lewis teamed up with another local drug boss Thomas (Shotgun Tommie) Hodges in bringing a series of large drug shipments up to Michigan from Mexico using a fleet of tractor trailers owned by Hodges. The business relationship fractured fast and turned violent by the end of the year. Authorities attribute 11 gangland slaying and at least four fire-bombings of businesses or private residences to the Lewis-Hodges street war.

Lewis survived an assassination attempt in September of 2002 when he was shot and wounded leaving a nightclub. Two weeks later, a bodyguard of his named McKinley (Big Mac) Tigner was killed outside his home in a hail of bullets.


Quasand Lewis
Tensions peaked on April 12, 2003 as Hodges and a pair of Lewis enforcers shot it out in front of Tiffany’s, a downtown Detroit nightclub literally a stone’s throw away from the then-Detroit Police Department headquarters located on the outskirts of the city’s Greektown entertainment district. Within minutes of arriving at the club, Hodges and his girlfriend came under automatic weapon fire from Lewis lieutenants Lamont (L-Boogie) Paris and Rhashi (Heartless) Harris while sitting and talking in Hodges’ Mercedes-Benz outside. After Hodges sped off down the block and let his girlfriend out of the vehicle, he came back guns blazing and him and the two Lewis henchmen exchanged fire in the club’s parking lot.

Neither Paris, Harris nor Hodges were wounded in the shootout, but a valet at the club was shot in the eye as Hodges sprayed the area. Paris and Harris were arrested near the scene within minutes after a high-speed chase. Hodges’ half-brother was slain in a drive-by shooting in July 2003.

Still, the police and the DEA had no real idea of what was going on organizationally in Hodges’ or Lewis’ world. That was until March 18, 2004 at the Studio Plus Hotel in Novi, Michigan after a frantic and intoxicated Spanish-speaking woman came screaming into the hotel lobby telling employees at the front desk about a dead body in her two-floor suite, prompting hotel security to call the police. A search of the suite didn’t turn up any corpses, however, Novi police officers did uncover 3.4 million dollars in cash stuffed into a number of duffle bags, a pound of marijuana, computer files and drug ledgers.

Calling in the FBI and DEA, authorities immediately traced phone records in the hotel room to Annette Sanchez and Giovanni Ruanova. From Sanchez and Ruanova, they got to Quasand Lewis and discovered that Lewis, with help from Ruanvoa, his own wife, Saeeda (Sissy) Walker and his brother-in-law Edward (Lemon) Walker, was running a massive illegal enterprise, supplying the state of Michigan and other surrounding states with enormous amounts of marijuana and pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Sissy Walker was accused of putting out a murder bounty on the heads of two men who robbed a Lewis organization stash house in the winter of 2005.

Following a May 2004 traffic stop in Oklahoma on their way driving to Arizona from Michigan, Sanchez and Ruanova were found carrying 1.8 million bucks in cash in the trunk of the rental car they were traveling in. It was the first of a half-dozen car searches and property raids over the next eight months connected to the Lewis organization that netted the feds more than five million dollars and over 4,000 pounds of marijuana.

The Hodges indictment landed in January 2005. He did just over a decade in the can and was released two years ago. He’s 44 today. Lewis was indicted in July 2005, taken into custody trying to board a commercial airliner in Cleveland. Pleading guilty in 2006, he forfeited $10,000,000 in cash and assets to the government as a part of his plea deal. http://gangsterreport.com/operation-fall...ght-in-arizona/

OPERATION FALLING STAR REDUX: RAIDS, SEIZURES HAD QUASAND LEWIS’ DETROIT DRUG EMPIRE AT BRINK OF INTERNAL WARFARE
Scott BurnsteinAfrican-American and Detroit and Drug Gangs and Featured and Midwest

The stress of an aggressive federal probe into their activities in the mid-2000s sent Detroit drug lord Quasand (Q-Dawg) Lewis’s inner-circle into paranoid chaos in the months before the Operation Falling Star indictment landed in July 2005 leading to a near civil war within the ranks of his organization on the heels of the bloody street war it had just engaged in against a rival narcotics crew, per court documents and DEA paperwork from the Falling Star inquiry. A series of raids and seizures by the DEA in 2004 and early 2005 had people in the Lewis camp pointing fingers, according to federal records and audio surveillance. And in one case, pulling triggers.

The Lewis organization was the biggest wholesale marijuana supplier in Michigan from the late 1990s through the first half of the 2000s and Opertion Falling Star entangled Lewis’ first cousin, then-pro basketball player Robert Traylor for helping Lewis hide his drug money. Quasand Lewis, 46, is currently nearing the end of his prison term. His top female courier Annette Sanchez was finally arrested late last year after 11 years on the run from the law. Her boyfriend, Giovanni (Big G) Ruanova, Lewis’ point man overseeing drug shipments from Mexico up to Detroit, remains a fugitive.

Tensions began rising in Lewis’ organization as the feds confiscated more than $5,000,000 in cash and millions of dollars-worth of narcotics and personal property in a half-dozen searches over an 18-month period. The searches were part of the Operation Falling Star investigation prompted by one of Sanchez and Ruanova’s drug mules alerting police of a suburban Detroit hotel suite which Sanchez and Ruanova were using as a stash spot via a panic-stricken complaint to the hotel’s front desk in the spring of 2004. The frazzled and intoxicated Hispanic female courier told hotel personnel there was a dead body in the suite – Novi, Michigan police found $2,000,000 in burlap duffel bags, garbage bags full of marijuana and transaction ledgers instead.

On March 9, 2005, Lewis lieutenant Robin (Slick) Wilson survived being shot several times in an attack outside his home by two assailants who sprayed his car with AK-47 assault rifles as he got behind the wheel of his Dodge Magnum. A court-authorized tap on the cell phone of Lewis’ No. 2 in command Edward (Lemon) Walker, caught a conversation between Walker and Wilson the night he was shot where Wilson blamed Lewis enforcer and sometimes-driver Lavert (Vicious Vito) Dafney with spearheading the attempt on his life, theorizing to Walker that Dafney was the only member of the organization that had been to his new house.

Lewis, Walker, Wilson and Dafney were all indicted together on July 13, 2005 and apprehended within two weeks. Lewis’ girlfriend, Saeeda (Sissy) Walker, Lemon Walker’s sister and fellow shot-caller directly underneath Lewis, was indicted as well. They all eventually pled guilty.

Slick Wilson was Lemon Walker’s right-hand man. As part of his plea deal, Wilson agreed to forfeit over $2,000,000 in cash and his fleet of expensive automobiles. The bug on Walker’s phone also intercepted a conversation between him and his sister with Walker pressing her on the belief that Lewis and Dafney had tried to take one of his guys out.

Vicious Vito Dafney served as Sissy’s Walker’s bodyguard and collector. He was arrested vacationing with his girlfriend at Cedar Point Amusement Park in nearby Sandusky, Ohio. A search of his Canton, Michigan residence, DEA agents discovered drug ledgers, electric cash-counting machines and an arsenal of high-performance firearms.

Lewis was nabbed by authorities trying to board an Atlanta-bound airplane at Cleveland’s Hopkins International Airport on July 25, 2005. Dafney had driven Lewis to Cleveland in the wake of the indictment dropping a week earlier and then met his girlfriend at a hotel on the grounds of Cedar Point located halfway between Cleveland and Detroit to hideout amongst the haven of roller-coaster lovers.

In addition to the Wilson shooting, the feds think Dafney could have been involved in the attempted murder of Marcus Smith, believed to be a loyalist to rival dope kingpin Thomas (Shotgun Tommie) Hodges, six weeks later. Smith, a postman, was shot in the shoulder and neck in an attack staged outside the post office he worked at in Detroit in the early morning hours of April 23, 2005, the final salvo in a two-and-a-half year street war waged between Lewis and Hodges, one-time business partners turned bitter enemies.

Almost a dozen gangland slayings, numerous shootings and at least four fire bombings were chalked up to the brazen warfare by authorities, a spat of violence that included an attempted assassination of Hodges in front of a nightclub across the street from what was at that time Detroit Police Department headquarters. Hodges went down in a separate drug and racketeering indictment earlier that same year.

Sissy Walker and Vicious Vito Dafney were released from prison in October 2015. Lemon Walker and Slick Wilson got sprung in 2011. Lewis is scheduled to be paroled in two years. Hodges, 44, came home in March 2015.

http://gangsterreport.com/operation-fall...ternal-warfare/