Louisiana Woman Sentenced as Part of Massive Drug Trafficking Operation Involving Heroin, Cocaine, and Crack

Louisiana – On August 19, 2022, United States Attorney Ronald C. Gathe, Jr. announced the sentencing of Yascia N. LaFrance age, 42 of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as part of Operation Hidden Fee, an extensive federal, state, and local investigation by the Middle District Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) aimed at a drug trafficking network based and operating in Baton Rouge.

Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick sentenced LaFrance to 90 months (7 years, 6 months) in federal prison following her convictions of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute heroin, cocaine, and cocaine base. LaFrance must also serve four years of supervised release following her term of imprisonment.

LaFrance was Travis James’s partner, according to admissions made as part of her guilty plea. LaFrance joined James and others in Houston to bargain for and purchase kilograms of cocaine and heroin. Their Houston supplier, in turn, acquired the narcotics from Mexico. The narcotics were then transferred to Baton Rouge by James and his associates for sale and distribution.

Travis James maintained local stash houses where he kept hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, stored and cut massive volumes of cocaine into smaller distribution amounts, and cooked powder cocaine into “crack” cocaine. LaFrance shared a home with James in one of these places, where they hid substantial sums of narcotics trafficking earnings. On June 12, 2017, LaFrance gave $200,000 of the proceeds to other members of the organization who were on their way to Houston to buy kilograms of cocaine and heroin.

On June 13, 2017, authorities recovered roughly $280,310 in narcotics earnings and a money counter while serving search warrants at the house LaFrance shared with Travis James. Another $179,000 in cash was confiscated from Travis James’ safe deposit box at a local bank during another warrant search.

To date, 11 people involved in this massive conspiracy have been charged and convicted.

The investigation is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Program, which was formed in 1982 to wage a comprehensive war on organized drug traffickers. Today, the OCDETF Program is the core of the United States Attorney General’s drug strategy to limit drug availability by disrupting and dismantling significant drug trafficking, money laundering, and related criminal businesses. The OCDETF Program is a nationwide operation that brings together the resources and specialized experience of several federal, state, and local authorities in a coordinated attack on large drug trafficking and money laundering enterprises.

The Drug Enforcement Administration spearheaded the investigation, which was assisted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Internal Revenue Service, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Baton Rouge City Police Department, and the Louisiana State Police. The US Marshals Service and the Sheriffs’ Offices in Ascension, Iberville, and West Baton Rouge Parishes also aided in apprehending the defendants. Assistant United States Attorneys Robert Piedrahita and Lyman E. Thornton III prosecuted these cases.