Crime Correspondent: San Fernando Valley

Vicente Corona, the alleged chief of a massive mail-order drug conspiracy

Vicente Corona, the alleged chief of a massive mail-order drug conspiracy that not only funneled a half-ton of marijuana and a quarter-ton of cocaine from California to Knoxville but also put on city streets some dangerous folks. That the conspiracy itself is one of the largest busted here is without question. The controversy that must be settled by jurors is whether this network was headed by Corona, painted in court records as a twice-convicted dope peddler, an illegal immigrant-turned millionaire with ties to the Mexican mafia and no hesitation to plot murder, or a mystery California gangster whose underlings are willing to lie Corona into a life sentence to protect him. Two years ago, it seemed another mundane drug case, set apart only by its scope and delivery method. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Winck had secured confessions from married couple Richard Robinson and Kimberly Robinson and their go-between, Dennis "Raggs" Richardson, identifying Corona as chief supplier of both marijuana and cocaine. It represented that rare climb up the ladder from street hustler to mid-level dealer to regional supplier to top dog. But attorney Steve Johnson soon mounted a defense that would twist this traditional plot into a veritable legal pretzel, with tales of gang loyalty and subterfuge, lying informants, missing dope and a corrupt California drug agent. At its heart, though, Johnson's defense is simple: Corona may have peddled a little pot, but no cocaine dealer was he. In the federal system, it is a key distinction. The penalties for cocaine trafficking are far and above those for marijuana. Corona, if convicted of peddling both, faces a mandatory life sentence. Court records filed in the pre-trial battles that have been waging now between prosecution partners Winck and Assistant U.S. Attorney Trey Hamilton and defense attorneys Johnson and Wade Davies offer tantalizing glimpses at the story soon to unfold in a trial to be presided over by U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips. Winck and Hamilton, for instance, have filed a motion that paints Corona as downright villainous. It links him to the Mexican Mafia and details a variety of plots he allegedly hatched since his January 2006 arrest in the San Fernando Valley. "Corona stated he planned to escape (from jail) during a medical procedure," one document stated. "(In a second escape plot), the United States will offer testimony that Corona stated that he planned to escape … by having his associates kill his guards during his return from a court appearance." The document accuses Corona of trying to track down not only witnesses against him but their family members, with plans to kidnap or even kill them to silence those witnesses, as well as planning a revenge killing of a co-hort cooperating with authorities. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration notes filed as part of one legal battle show shades of "Scarface," with Corona boasting of being a millionaire with a mansion fit for a drug kingpin. Defense records tell an altogether different tale, painting Corona as a victim of the scheming Robinsons and Richardson, all of whom Johnson alleges are members of a dangerous Los Angeles gang known as the Original Valley Gang, a small sect of the Crips street gang. The defense accuses the Robinsons of crafting a plot to frame Corona "in order to protect their true supplier within the OVG while at the same time get the benefit of cooperation with the government in order to obtain relief from severe mandatory minimum sentences. "… Mr. Robinson is one of the original members of the Original Valley Gang, that he is a high-ranking or senior member of the gang (and) has a duty to lie for and protect the members of the gang, and other gang members such as other government witnesses (including Richardson) have a duty to protect him and do what he tells them to do," Johnson wrote. Johnson and Davies also are trying to draw into the case testimony about a California drug agent recently indicted in that state for allegedly robbing drug dealers. That agent was one of several present when Corona was nabbed. According to court records, Corona had marijuana in his possession at the time, but that drug has since turned up missing. Winck and Hamilton contend the agent's legal woes have nothing to do with the case against Corona. They're also trying to convince Phillips to shoot down Johnson's bid to bring into Knoxville a California geography professor who claims to be a street gang expert.

Vicente Corona, the alleged chief of a massive mail-order drug conspiracy

Vicente Corona, the alleged chief of a massive mail-order drug conspiracy that not only funneled a half-ton of marijuana and a quarter-ton o...