Russell Symes, Michael Holley, Donye Davis: Steroid/Percocet Peddlers Busted Smuggling Pills in Underpants
A trio of Tacoma men face federal charges after police caught them with illegal handguns, injectable testosterone, and thousands of Percocet pills, which were allegedly smuggled from Las Vegas via a duct tape underwear pouch
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According to a criminal complaint filed in western Washington federal court, Russell "Rusty" Symes, Michael Holley, and Donye Davis were nabbed in November by a Tacoma cop working with the DEA's "tactical diversion squad." Symes and Holley pleaded guilty last week to charges of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, while Davis' case is still ongoing.
Court documents say an informant tipped off the Tacoma police last May that the 25-year-old Davis had "dealer quantities" of Percocet at his disposal. The snitch made two buys of several 30 milligram Percocet pills from Davis. Police arrested Davis, and he allegedly "repeatedly explained" that he and his housemate Symes were unemployed and sold pills for a living. He also told police that evidence would be hard to come by because business had been booming.
"You just missed the big drop so we only have maybe sixty pills inside our condo,," Davis allegedly said. "We only have a couple racks (referring to a couple thousand dollars) left in our condo that we we made from selling."
A subsequent search of the condo turned up several bottles of testosterone, a few hundred dollars, two pistols, three suboxone pills, and 1,225 oxycodone pills in a safe. They also found $4,000 worth of Gucci items, and an interesting pair of underpants.
According to the court documents, the cops found underwear that "had been altered so as to contain a pouch made out of duct tape, such as to facilitate the transportation of items through a security check." It's unclear whether the drawers in question were Gucci.
Symes said he paid "random people" to go to Vegas once or twice a week and buy the Percocet (a brand name for oxycodone), then return via Greyhound with the pills hidden in duct tape underwear pouches. This no doubt made for a long, sweaty bus ride but Symes said he still sold the pills for $15-20 each. Buying them at $12-13 a pop, they netted $7,000 a month in profit.
In addition to the oxycodone possession and conspiracy charges, all three men are charged with being felons in possession of firearms.Tacoma Steroids/Percocet Complaint
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