Maurice "Papa Joe" Williams was the puppeteer pulling the strings of a huge central Ohio cocaine-trafficking enterprise, a federal jury decided today.Williams, 34, was found guilty of running a drug empire that brought hundreds and possibly thousands of kilos of cocaine to the region over a 10-year period. Jurors also concluded that Williams was guilty of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and marijuana and using a phone to distribute drugs.Many of Williams' relatives and friends attended the seven-day trial in front of U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus.Local, state and federal law-enforcement agents had been trying to nail Williams and his cohorts for years and finally charged him after wire-tapping 10,000 phone calls and convincing 11 co-conspirators to testify against him.He was indicted on 34 counts in February 2009.Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robyn Hahnert and David DeVillers laid out a case against Williams that had all the makings of a Hollywood thriller: fancy cars, expensive jewelry, drugs stashed in hidden compartments, messages in code.At the center was a man who had the following of a rock star, Hahnert said in closing arguments yesterday.Williams "lived the high life" with expensive cars and beautiful houses, DeVillers said. "Yet he never had a job."As the drug kingpin, Williams hardly ever touched the cocaine and, later, marijuana he brought to the area, DeVillers said."He has everyone else do his bidding. He was the legend. He was Papa Joe."The government built its case on recorded phone conversations between Williams and his assistants, conversations about "smokey robinson" and "nifty" both code words for marijuana and "piggies," the code for a pound of drugs.Police surveillance put Williams at area stash houses where drugs were brought in from Detroit or Atlanta or Houston and then distributed to dealers.And co-conspirators with names like "Little D," "Tone" and "Rabbit" testified that Williams called the shots while carefully ensuring that others did the dirty work of picking up and distributing the drugs.Williams' attorneys, Jeffrey Brandt and Matthew Robinson, did not call any defense witnesses. Instead, they relied on opening and closing statements to drive home the argument that the government had not proved its case against their client."The government has created a story that can't be backed up," Brandt said. He argued that the surveillance testimony, taped phone conversations and evidence found by police weren't enough to convict Williams without corroborating witness testimony.And the prosecution witnesses couldn't be trusted to tell the truth because they were trying to minimize their own prison time by testifying against Williams, Brandt said."I believe in my bones that he's innocent of the offenses of which he's charged," he said.A sentencing date has not been set.
