CRESTVIEW, Fla. (WDNews) — Three Crestview residents have pleaded guilty in federal court to charges connected to a cocaine trafficking operation that authorities say ran for about two years.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida, Arzalea Teshean McLaughlin, 37, Benjamin Eugene Mack, 54, and Roger Cornell Daniels, 38, pleaded guilty to federal drug charges.
The charges include conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and cocaine base, conspiracy to unlawfully use a communications facility, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
According to court documents, McLaughlin, Mack and Daniels conspired with each other and others between 2023 and 2025 to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine and cocaine base, commonly known as “crack cocaine.”
Federal prosecutors said McLaughlin obtained cocaine for sale through Daniels and used several locations in Okaloosa County to store and distribute the drugs, including the homes of Mack and Daniels.
Search warrants at those locations led investigators to seize nearly three-quarters of a kilogram of cocaine from Mack’s home and almost one-quarter of a kilogram from Daniels’ home, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. Attorney John P. Heekin said:
“Thanks to the coordinated investigative efforts of our state and federal law enforcement partners, this trio’s days of trafficking drugs in the Northern District of Florida are at an end. With every successful prosecution by my office we are taking back our streets from these peddlers of poisonous drugs to deliver the safe, drug-free communities that the citizens of the Northern District of Florida deserve.”
McLaughlin is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 24 at 9 a.m. Mack’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 15 at 2 p.m., while Daniels is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 4 at 9 a.m. All three hearings are set before U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II.
McLaughlin and Mack face mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years and up to life in prison. Daniels faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to a total of 74 years in prison. Prosecutors said all three face enhanced penalties because of prior qualifying drug or violent convictions.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS Criminal Investigation, Crestview Police Department and Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, with help from the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicia H. Forbes is prosecuting the case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the prosecution is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative.
