Two Fugitives in Epic Drug Trial Captured, Third Still on the Lam

Two fugitives convicted in one of the largest drug cases in metro Detroit history have been captured and a third remains on the lam.

Drug kingpin Carlos Powell, 39, of Washington Township, had a firearm and $750,000 cash on him when authorities caught up with him in eastern Missouri, and his brother, Eric, 36, of Franklin, was caught near Atlanta, also with a large amount of money, the U.S. Marshal’s Service told The Detroit News reports.

A third suspect , Earnest Proge, 38, of Detroit is still at large. All three were free on bond when they disappeared.

The three men disappeared before a U.S. District Court jury read guilty verdicts in an epic drug trial. Carlos Powell reportedly made millions of dollars from importing hundreds of kilograms of heroin and cocaine, along with thousands of pounds of marijuana from Mexico, federal prosecutors alleged.

The Powell brothers reportedly have family in Atlanta, where government seized a posh condominium prosecutors argued had been purchased with drug money.

In the meantime, a juror who failed to show up about the same time three defendants in an epic metro Detroit drug trial disappeared has been ordered to appear in U.S. District Court on June 11.

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the kingpin and two of his accomplices last month in an epic federal drug trial has deepened.

A juror disappeared at the same time as the defendants vanished, and the federal judge overseeing their trial wants to know if it’s a coincidence or if there’s a connection, The Detroit News reports.

The juror, David McIntosh, 48. of Detroit, didn’t attend closing arguments or the deliberations.

The case against drug dealers Carlos Powell, his brother, Eric Powell, and a friend, Earnest Proge, is described as one of the largest drug trials in metro Detroit history. A fourth defendant, former state Rep. Kenneth Daniels, did not flee.

The Powell brothers and Proge distinguished themselves throughout the two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy by wearing fezzes with long tassels, headgear they said was in keeping with their religion as members of Moorish Science Temple of America.

The trial was the result of a years’ long investigation in which 66 pounds of heroin, 12 kilograms of cocaine, 1,000 pounds of marijuana and more than $21 million in cash were seized from Carlos Powell’s Macomb County home – a  cache largeenough to put the kingpin in a class among the most prolific drug dealers in metro Detroit history.

When agents raided the home, they found about $3 million in cash stashed in plain sight – for example,  at the tops of drawers, under the television and in the kitchen pantry. “It was almost as if he was running out of places to put the cash,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Gabel said during opening statements.