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Six arrested in moonshine bust
Six people have been charged on federal indictments with running a
moonshine operation in the Cove area of Halifax County. Indicted on
Monday in US District Court in Roanoke were five Franklin County men
and a Pittsylvania County woman — Jody Alton Smith, 60, Danny Walter
Davis, 49, Terry Lynn Smith, 48, and Jarman Johnson, 65, all of Glade
Hill and 46 year old Margaret Smith of Sandy Level.
All six defendants appeared before a magistrate judge last Monday and
were released on $10,000 bonds.
The moonshine still, located in a Halifax County building that the
defendants had equipped with surveillance cameras, is believed to have
furnished untaxed liquor throughout Virginia and as far away as
Philadelphia. When the indictment was unsealed recently, it was found
that federal investigators had also installed hidden cameras at the
site. And the indictment noted that on May 12, 2006, investigators had
found 1,726 one-gallon jugs, 600 pounds of sugar, 50 pounds of barley
and 125 empty bags that had once held 100 pounds of sugar, a key
ingredient in moonshine.
Last week's allegations against the six include conspiracy to produce
and receive untaxed liquor, possession of an unregistered still,
unlawful production of distilled spirits, money laundering and perjury.
Federal authorities also filed papers to seize some real estate and
some vehicles, which they said were linked to the operation.
If the charges prove true, it would be a second time in recent years
that federal prosecutors have uncovered an illegal liquor operation
connecting Franklin County and Philadelphia. Operation Lightning
Strike, which was carried out in 1999, led to the conviction of 29
people and the recovery of some $2.1 million in assets that were
connected to the criminal enterprises. At that time government
officials estimated that moonshiners had produced about one and a half
million gallons of illegal liquor between the years of 1992 and 1999,
resulting in the loss of some $20 million in taxes.
Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives and the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
carried out the most recent investigation.