A case that began as an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) case in Shreveport has resulted in the conviction and sentencing of 20 defendants to a combined sentence of over 87 years in federal prison for a drug trafficking conspiracy involving thousands of pounds of marijuana that the conspirators sold for millions of dollars over the course of more than a decade.
“Organized drug trafficking is a menace to our communities, promoting lawlessness, violence, and addiction,” said United States Attorney Zachary A. Keller. “Dismantling these networks lies at the heart of our mission to make our Louisiana communities safe, and this case shows our Office’s ability to work with state, local, and federal law enforcement partners—here, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office and Shreveport Police Department—to do precisely that.”
According to documents and testimony presented in court, Hikmat Deeb worked with others, including Brieon O’Neal and Andrew Brown, to obtain and distribute marijuana in the Western District of Louisiana from 2012 until the time of his arrest in September 2023. The defendants originally obtained marijuana on the West Coast, with the men found by law enforcement to possess large sums of cash at airports in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle that Deeb later admitted to be for the purchase of large quantities of marijuana.
By 2021, Deeb began obtaining marijuana from sources of supply in Oklahoma that included his brother, Rshad Deeb, and Hui He and Yichen He, both Chinese nationals. Hui He owned two properties in Oklahoma that he used for the illegal cultivation and distribution of marijuana and was also connected to a larger marijuana distribution organization. After purchasing the marijuana, Deeb used a network of couriers and salesmen to transport and sell the drugs to the Western District of Louisiana and elsewhere, with the marijuana stored in places like apartment buildings, homes, and an abandoned car lot in Shreveport.
In addition, Deeb’s wife, Jerusalia Bell, laundered many of the proceeds of this conspiracy through a retail clothing line, with Deeb giving her cash from his illegal drug sales to deposit into her business bank account. Bell’s business had nearly $1 million in unreported income between 2020 and 2022 alone, representing the proceeds of this laundering activity from that period.
This case led to substantial prison sentences for several co-conspirators, including Deeb, who was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison, as well as Hui He and Bell, both of whom received sentences of more than eight years in prison. The full list of defendants, their conviction and sentences are as follows:
| Hui He a/k/a “Kevin,” 42Norman, OK | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 100 months in prison, 4 years supervised release |
| Hikmat Jamal Deeb a/k/a “Hek” and “Hector,” 35Bossier City, LA | Pleaded guilty to laundering of monetary instrumentsSentenced to 224 months in prison, 3 years supervised release |
| Brieon O’Neal, 37Bossier City, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 72 months in prison, 4 years supervised release |
| Andrew O. Brown, 31Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana and wire fraudSentenced to 63 months in prison, 4 years supervised releaseRestitution of $22,000 |
| Rshad Deeb a/k/a “Ray,” 69Bossier City, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 108 months in prison, 5 years supervised release |
| Modh Fawzi Tbaileh a/k/a “Moody,” 35Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 60 months in prison, 4 years supervised release |
| Trevor J. Osifo, 30Aubrey, TX | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 72 months in prison, 5 years supervised release |
| Jimmy Lee Mays, Jr., 32Longview, TX | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 41 months in prison, 3 years supervised release |
| Dajuan Jackson a/k/a “Bando,” 43Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 46 months in prison, 3 years supervised release |
| Yichen He a/k/a “Brian” and “Lin Lin,” 31Newcastle, OK | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 60 months in prison, 4 years supervised release |
| Javarria Linnear a/k/a “Bubba,” 33Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 5 years of supervised probationFine of $5,500 |
| Jerusalia S. Bell, 37Bossier City, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 97 months in prison, 3 years supervised release |
| James Troy Phillips, 37Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 60 months in prison, 5 years supervised release |
| Damarquez Mitchell a/k/a “Quez,” 33Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana and possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crimeSentenced to 84 months in prison, 5 years supervised release |
| Clarissa Monet Holmes, 31Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 3 years supervised probation |
| Shakera Stringfellow, 27Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 3 years supervised probation |
| Hadi Deeb, 26Bossier City, LA | Conspiracy to launder monetary instrumentsSentenced to 21 months in prison, 3 years supervised release |
| Elesia Denee Johnson, 28Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentenced to 3 years of supervised probation |
| Adham Jamal Deeb a/k/a “Polo,” 40Bossier City, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentencing set for 2/12/2026 |
| Cory David Beasley, 39Shreveport, LA | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuanaSentencing set for 3/12/2026 |
U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. is scheduled to sentence the two remaining defendants, Adham Deeb and Cory Beasley, in early 2026 after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Keller for the Western District of Louisiana made the announcement.
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office and Shreveport Police Department investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica D. Cassidy and J. Aaron Crawford are prosecuting the case.
The investigation and conviction of these defendants originated as part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identified, disrupted, and dismantled the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threatened the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leveraged the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.