Federal authorities identified Neil Nick Rene, 35, as the ringleader and primary participant in a drug-trafficking organization that shipped hundreds of kilograms of marijuana from Arlington to the U.S. Virgin Islands.[1] Authorities arrested Rene and five others, including his 42-year-old ex-wife Laura Louise Ryan-Rene, in North Texas in the week before publication.[1] The people arrested in North Texas had already been released on bond when the article was published.[1] Eleven others were arrested in St. Croix on the Thursday the article was published, in connection with the same case, including a territorial court marshal.[1]
Federal documents said the organization had been sending packages of marijuana to the Virgin Islands since at least November 2009.[1] The group sent more than 120 Express Mail parcels from at least five post office stations in Arlington to at least six addresses in St. Croix.[1] Authorities put the total weight of the marijuana at more than 500 kilograms.[1] U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña said the arrests culminated a more than two-year investigation into shipping large quantities of marijuana from Arlington, Texas, to St. Croix.[1]
The investigation was spearheaded by the Dallas and Fort Worth offices of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.[1] Rene had previously pleaded guilty in 1995 and was sentenced to five years in federal prison in a Dallas marijuana distribution case, returned to prison in fall 2000 after his supervised release was revoked, and was re-released in fall 2001.[1] The case drew attention because Rene’s teenage sister Lisa Rene had been kidnapped from an Arlington apartment and killed in 1994 by men angry at Rene over a drug dispute.[1]
