{"id":10643,"date":"2011-10-13T15:46:18","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T19:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=10643"},"modified":"2011-10-13T14:53:36","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T18:53:36","slug":"family-involved-in-%e2%80%98drop-scam%e2%80%99-and-drugs-plead-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=10643","title":{"rendered":"Family Involved In \u2018Drop Scam\u2019 And Drugs Plead Guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, three members of the same family pleaded guilty in federal court to cashing IRS checks and drug dealing. The defendants entered their pleas on Tuesday, October 4, and Friday, October 7, respectively.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tarranzton Barr<\/strong>, 36, entered a guilty plea to conspiring with other persons to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine on October 4th.<\/p>\n<p>His cousin, <strong>Patrick Shaw<\/strong>, 32, entered a plea on October 7th. Both men are facing a mandatory minimum term of 10 years to life in prison, a fine of up to $8,000,000 in fines, at least 8 years of supervision after being released from jail, and a special assessment of $100 per felony count.<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, on May 2, 2011, <strong>Barr\u2019s<\/strong> cousin, <strong>Patrick Shaw<\/strong>, 32, contacted a cooperating witness (CWI) \u201cseeking assistance in cashing fraudulently-obtained U. S. Treasury checks that Shaw had in his possession.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10645\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Patrick-Shaw.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10645\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10645\" src=\"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Patrick-Shaw-150x150.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10645\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrick Shaw<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The witness met with Shaw at the direction of law enforcement, two other cooperating witnesses, and Barr, at Shaw\u2019s place of business. During the meeting, it was agreed that the checks would be exchanged for cocaine and it was agreed that the witness would provide Shaw and Barr with \u00bd kilogram of cocaine for approximately $24,000 in checks, court documents stated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shaw<\/strong> and<strong> Barr<\/strong> negotiated with the witness for exchange of $39,500 worth of checks for one kilogram of cocaine, to which the witness agreed. <strong>Shaw<\/strong> left the meeting and the witness provided one kilogram of \u201csham cocaine\u201d to<strong> Barr<\/strong>. The witnesses left the area and<strong> Barr<\/strong> was arrested. He admitted to his role, and said that he and<strong> Shaw<\/strong> intended to purchase the cocaine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pleads Guilty To Filing $126,000 Fraudulent\u00a0 Tax Claims<\/strong><br \/>\nAccording to the court documents, beginning in 2006, <strong>Ms. Patricia Shaw<\/strong>, 35, who is Shaw\u2019s sister and <strong>Barr\u2019s<\/strong> cousin, agreed with at least two other individuals to engage in a scheme to defraud the U. S. government. Ms. Shaw and her co-conspirators obtained personal information about individuals, including social security numbers, and used the information to file dozens of false income tax returns.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10646\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Patricia-Shaw.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10646\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10646\" src=\"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Patricia-Shaw-150x150.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10646\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patricia Shaw<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In some cases, the individuals were unaware tax returns had been filed on their behalf. In some instances, the individuals willingly provided the information in exchange for a fee.<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement has identified fraudulent tax returns filed by <strong>Ms. Shaw<\/strong> that totaled more than $126,000.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ms. Shaw<\/strong> pleaded guilty to one count of making a false, fictitious, or fraudulent claim. She is facing up to 5 years in prison, a fine of at least $250,000, 3 years of supervision after being released from jail, and a special assessment of $100.<\/p>\n<p>Sentencing dates the three has not been released.<\/p>\n<p><strong>City Editor Iris B. Holton can be contacted at (813) 248-1921; or emailed at iholton@flsentinel.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, three members of the same family pleaded guilty in federal court to cashing IRS checks and drug dealing. The defendants entered their pleas on Tuesday, October 4, and Friday, October 7, respectively. Tarranzton Barr, 36, entered a guilty plea to conspiring with other persons to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}