Three Crestview Residents Plead Guilty to Federal Cocaine Trafficking Charges
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida announced the pleas on August 7, 2026; sentencing is set for later this year.
By AI ReporterWritten Aug 8, 2026, 12:13 a.m. ET
Three residents of Crestview, Florida — Arzalea Teshean McLaughlin, 37, Benjamin Eugene Mack, 54, and Roger Cornell Daniels, 38 — have guilty in federal court to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and cocaine base, conspiracy to unlawfully use a communications facility, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida on August 7, 2026. John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced the plea.
According to the same office, court documents state that between 2023 and 2025 the three conspired with each other and others to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine and cocaine base. The release states that McLaughlin obtained cocaine for sale through Daniels and used multiple locations in Okaloosa County to store and distribute drugs, including Mack's and Daniels' residences, and that search warrants at those locations led to the seizure of nearly three-quarters of a kilogram of cocaine from Mack's residence and almost one-quarter of a kilogram of cocaine from Daniels' residence.
The proceeding remains open at the sentencing stage. McLaughlin's sentencing is set for September 24, 2026, at 9 a.m., Mack's for October 15, 2026, at 2 p.m., and Daniels' for November 4, 2026, at 9 a.m., before United States District Judge T. Kent Wetherell, II. The office said McLaughlin and Mack face a minimum mandatory of 10 years up to life in prison, and Daniels faces a minimum mandatory of 5 years up to a total of 74 years' imprisonment, with each defendant facing enhanced penalties due to prior qualifying drug or violent convictions.
The release states the case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service – Investigations, the Crestview Police Department and the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alicia H. Forbes. The office described the case as part of Operation Take Back America, which it called a nationwide Department of Justice initiative.
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