Alleged kingpin pleads guilty to overseeing dope ring responsible for 4,000 kilos of coke worth $24 million

By BRENDAN KIRBY

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    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — A panel of potential jurors staring at him, an alleged drug kingpin on Monday cut a deal with prosecutors.

Darrin Jamark “DD” Southall, 43, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Under the deal, he faces 35 years in prison but could cut that to 30 years – the statutory minimum – if prosecutors determine has cooperated with law enforcement investigators working on this and other cases. He also has been named a “person of interest” in the killing of a Happy Hill couple.

Southall admitted to running an extensive drug distribution network that supplied dealers across the Gulf Coast. Court records indicate that law enforcement investigators had been on to Southall since at least 2016. Federal agents received a court order to begin monitoring Southall’s telephone in November 2020. They also tapped other phones December through February.

Those conversations, according to Southall’s plea agreement, showed him talking to couriers and led to busts resulting in the seizure of 12 kilograms of cocaine, almost $500,000 in cash and a gun.

It turned out to be the tip of the iceberg, according to the plea document. Those agreement details a conspiracy involving 4,000 kilograms of cocaine, 24 kilograms of heroin and 2 kilograms of fentanyl. During the conspiracy, according to the plea agreement, Southall reaped about $24 million in drug proceeds.

In addition to the guilty plea, Southall agreed to surrender almost jewelry, almost $2.4 million in cash and 18 vehicles that federal agents seized.

Southall’s lawyer worked out a plea agreement several weeks ago, but the defendant rejected it at the time. His decision to plead guilty on Monday left just one other defendant facing trial. But by the end of the day, that defendant – Brandy Lesha Thrash – also announced she would admit guilt. Fifteen out of 16 defendants named in the indictment now have pleaded guilty. The 16th, Alandus Reshun Davison, remains at large.

Southall admitted that drug money paid for his condominium in Biloxi and storage units in Alabama and Mississippi.

Southall told a supplier in Texas that he sold 100 kilograms of cocaine every month, like “clockwork,” the plea agreement states. That amounts to $3 million paid to the supplier every month. Court records indicate that investigators working the case concluded it was achievable after seizing almost $2.2 million in cash, mostly from storage units, when they arrested co-defendants in March.

“Obviously, traditional accountants and financial institutions were not directly available to Southall for his illegal drug business, so he relied on trusted members of the conspiracy to provide needed financial transactions to conceal his ownership of the drug money and to act as nominees,” the plea agreement states.

According to the plea agreement, federal agents recorded thousands of calls in which Southall arranged for the purchase and distribution of cocaine and heroin. The plea agreement details several specific examples of those calls.

At one point, agents set up surveillance at a lawyer’s office in Mobile and saw Southall and a co-defendant arrive in the parking lot together.

The plea agreement also documents how Southall would launder the drug proceeds. It cites bank accounts from a co-defendant showing unexplained cash deposits of more than $150,000 from February 2019 though January of this year.

The plea document shows that another co-defendant made large cash deposits and was paying rent for Southall’s Biloxi condo with cashier’s checks, which Southall reimbursed her for. It was designed, according to prosecutors, to conceal Southall’s ownership of the cash and its source.

Southall served prison time after pleading guilty in 2002 to a drug conspiracy charge. He also pleaded guilty in September to an escape charge stemming from an incident in May in which he slipped out of the Clarke County Jail, where he had been detained on the federal drug charges.

Mobile police officially have called Southall a “person of interest” in the February deaths of Tony and Leila Lewis. According to law enforcement authorities, someone fired into the couple’s home on Dr. Thomas Drive; the home caught fired and burned down.

A law enforcement source has told FOX10 News that Southall is a suspect in the killing, although he has not been charged in connection with the case. The couple’s grandson is Nahshon Jones, who performs under the stage name HoneyKomb Brazy.

According to court records, Jones fatally shot Southall’s nephew in 2016. A police report called the case murder, but a grand jury declined to indict Jones on the charge. He pleaded guilty instead to a gun violation.

Law enforcement authorities have acknowledged “bad blood” between rival factions involving the rapper and Southall, but they have stopped short of saying that the 2016 shooting played a role in the February killings.

Chief U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose set sentencing for Feb. 18.

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