AGENT HONORED: DRUG INVESTIGATION EARNS NATIONAL AWARD

A Cape Girardeau law enforcement agent earned a national award for his two-year investigation that netted nine motorcycle gang members involved in a three-state drug trafficking ring.

Roger Moen, special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), is one of two ATF agents in the nation to be recognized for successfully investigating drug trafficking.

Five members of a Southeast Missouri motorcycle gang were found guilty by a federal jury in March and were sentenced in May. Four others pleaded guilty and are scheduled be sentenced this month.

The award was presented to Moen by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, a group designed to target, investigate and prosecute individuals in high-level drug trafficking. Many agencies are involved in the task force, including ATF, FBI, DEA, Immigration and Naturalization, Marshal's Service, Customs, IRS, and the Coast Guard.

A meeting of the task force was held in Florida last week, when Moen received his honor.

From November 1988 through March 1990, Moen, along with agents from DEA and the Missouri Highway Patrol, investigated the Pharaoh's motorcycle gang.

Moen said the investigation revealed that over a two-year period members of the gang distributed in excess of 110 pounds of methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of $2 million.

This award is presented to individuals who help investigate and prosecute individuals involved in large narcotics operations.

Moen said, "The Pharaohs investigation is one in a lifetime for me. It's hard to find a large narcotics distribution operation in Southeast Missouri.

"They were distributing 100 pounds of methamphetimines over a three-state area," he said. "That's a good-size operation."

Moen said he began investigating rumors of drug trafficking in 1988.

"During the later part of '88 we were hearing allegations about a sophisticated, well-organized drug organization in Southeast Missouri.

"Through investigation, we started to focus on several members of the Pharaoh's gang and found they were responsible for about 95 percent of all the methamphatemine in a three-state area."

In May, four members of the motorcycle gang were sentenced to 40 years in prison and a fifth one to 17 years. Given 40-year sentences Friday were Floyd Alvin "Butch" England of Piedmont, Chris "Lizard" Terrell of Wardell, Myles E. Curtis of Malden and David L. Mosby of Gideon. A fifth defendant, Ronnie D. Peacock of Parma, was given a 17-year sentence.

Authorities said the men are members of the Pharaohs motorcycle club. The defendants were arrested in March 1990 by federal, state and regional officials and were later indicted by a federal grand jury.

The four defendants who entered guilty pleas are Cecil Summerfield of Salem, Calvin Harold Clark of Fredericktown, C. Lanny Robinson of Greenville and Danny Walker of McGee.