A man who has been arrested on drug-related charges by local, state and federal authorities appeared during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Monday. Fifty-six-year-old Jamey Roof of Mountain Home entered a guilty plea to charges in a 2020 case and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Roof has been charged in criminal cases in Baxter county stretching back to 1998.
His most recent Baxter County arrest came in early May 2020 when officers conducted a compliance visit on a probationer.
The lawmen found the probationer, his girlfriend, along with Roof and another man at the residence along State Highway 5 South.
Roof tried to run, but didn’t make it far. He was found hiding in a bathroom at the rear of the residence.
A significant quantity of methamphetamine was located, along with what was described as a “production line” where it was alleged multiple people appeared to have processed marijuana for sale.
In addition to the drugs, officers found small plastic bags, digital scales, and other items used in the processing and packaging of both methamphetamine and marijuana for delivery.
Various items of paraphernalia used in the ingestion of drugs – including smoking pipes and syringes – were also located.
A rifle was found in the residence. All four people arrested were convicted felons and not allowed to be around firearms.
When Roof reached the Baxter County Detention Center, he was found to have a small plastic bag of methamphetamine concealed in his rectum.
Roof was charged with possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia, simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms and bringing the methamphetamine into the jail.
Roof has also been in trouble in other places stemming from drug activity.
He was one of the men recently swept up in a round up of alleged drug dealers in and around Izard County.
Roof and the others were served warrants based on a federal indictment, according to a news release from the Izard County Sheriff’s office.
The investigation leading to the arrests was triggered by the fentanyl overdose death of an Izard County man.
Izard County Chief Deputy Charley Melton said it was the “first time we have been able to directly link a dealer to the death of another person.”
The dealer who allegedly sold fentanyl to the overdose victim was 64-year-old Michael David (Slick) Mullins, Sr., of Highland.
In addition to other charges, Mullins is accused of distributing drugs resulting in death.
In late August last year, Roof and another man were found in possession of drugs when they were stopped for a minor traffic offense on State Highway 9 just outside of Oxford.
The drugs mentioned in the probable cause affidavit were heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana.
The man with Roof was alleged to have had 100 bundles, weighing a total of almost 92 grams, of what he claimed was heroin hidden on his body.
Roof and the other man said they had driven out of state to buy the drugs to “import” into Izard County.
In his statement to police following the traffic stop, Roof claimed to have been abusing heroin for some time.
Roof said that he sometimes mixed his heroin with methamphetamine “to keep from passing out.”
With his court appearance Monday, Roof took care of his Baxter County charges, but he has a number of others facing him in different locations.
A jury trial on the drug-related charges against him in Izard County is now set for August 24.
On his federal drug charges, a trial is scheduled for Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas beginning September 6.
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