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Tampa Police Say They've Jailed 2 Drug Group Members

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 25, 2008

Charles Watts

Elliott Walden Jr.

TAMPA - Two Tampa men were part of an organization that worked to bring marijuana and thousands of grams of cocaine to Tampa for distribution, police say.

On Tuesday night, officers arrested Charles "Puff" Watts and Elliott "Eddo" Walden Jr. at 206 E. Plymouth St.

Police started investigating Watts in May and Walden this month, according to arrest affidavits.

"The facts gathered in this investigation includes monitored conversations between and among members of this organization and visual surveillance and approximately 2,000 grams of cocaine," Walden's criminal arrest affidavit states. "During the course of the investigation, the defendant was intercepted engaging in more than one hundred conversations with co-defendants directly related to obtaining, possessing and distributing trafficking quantities of cocaine."

Watts, meanwhile, was caught engaging in more than 30 such conversations, his arrest affidavit states.

Watts, 31, and Walden, 27, were charged with racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, trafficking in cocaine and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.

Walden is on probation for lewd and lascivious battery; he was charged Tuesday with violating probation.

Watts, of 3421 Whittier St., Apt. B, and Walden, of 6601 N. Nebraska Ave., remained in Orient Road Jail today. Their bail had not been set.

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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